He began his professional stage career as a founding member of
Milan's Compagnia dei Giovani, under the direction of
Giorgio De Lullo and
Romolo Valli. He performed with the
Paolo Stoppa and
Rina Morelli's company in a 1960 production of ''L'Arialda'', directed by
Luchino Visconti, and achieved critical praise for his performance as 'Nick' in a production of ''
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', opposite
Enrico Maria Salerno. He performed extensively with
Gabriele Lavia for the
Teatro Eliseo, of which he was the artistic director between 1980 and 1997. After a minor role in
Federico Fellini's
La Dolce Vita, Orsini made his official film debut in the 1960 film
Love in Rome. After several supporting roles, including in the star-studded international production
Candy, Orsini made his breakthrough in Visconti's
The Damned, playing a disillusioned industrialist in 1930s Germany whose anti-Nazi views leave him a target of the new regime. The role earned Orsini praise from Italian critics, and he won that year's
Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actor. He would collaborate again with Visconti in the 1973 historical epic
Ludwig, which also reunited him with
Damned co-stars
Helmut Berger and
Helmut Griem. Outside his native Italy, Orsini also worked in French cinema, notably playing the husband of the title character in
Emmanuelle 2 and
Goodbye Emmanuelle. Orsini found success on Italian television, becoming a regular fixture of
RAI programming. He co-hosted the Sunday morning cooking show
Colazione allo studio 7 with
Luigi Veronelli. ==Personal life==