Through her mother,
Nora Ricci, Paola Gassman was a fifth generation actor, as Ricci was the daughter of actors
Renzo Ricci and
Margherita Bagni. Gassman devoted herself almost exclusively to the theater, with the exception of some sporadic but significant television appearances in comedies and scripts. At the beginning of her career she spent three years in the Milan company Teatro Libero, directed by
Luca Ronconi. She performed in their show
Orlando furioso, which toured in many European countries and in the
United States before being adapted into a television series. Also during that period, she performed in the shows
La tragedia del avengeratore and
Cucina. She then joined the Brignone-Pagliai company, where she performed in
Ibsen's
Spectra and
Fabbri's
Family Process. Gassman was directed by her father,
Vittorio Gassman, onstage. With the theatrical company
Pagliai-Gassman staged many shows both in the dramatic and in the comic and brilliant genre. She had a long period dedicated to
Luigi Pirandello. She also performed in
Goldoni's
The Liar,
Georges Feydeau's
The Cat in the Pocket,
Svevo's
Wedding Scenes, and Shakespeare's
The Merchant of Venice and ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream''. She acted with directors such as
Squarzina,
Bolognini,
Sciaccaluga, and
Ronconi. Her later shows included
Miller's
Down from Mount Morgan;
Crouse's
Life with Father;
Mary Coyle Chase's
Harvey;
Iphigenia in Aulis and
Helen (both by
Euripides); and
Viaggio a Venezia and
La Bottega del Caffe (both by
Goldoni). In recent years with
Ugo Pagliai, she dedicated herself to poetry and to all those pieces that are linked to memory and repertoire. In 2007, she published the
autobiography A big family behind your back through Marsilio Editori. == Personal life and death ==