The Italian Job: What happened to the main cast?

9 December 2025, 13:52

The Italian Job was led by Michael Caine, but he was ably backed by an all-star cast.

Directed by Peter Collinson and released in the summer of '69, The Italian Job was immediately hailed on its release as a brilliant piece of 1960s British cinema.

Since then its endured as a classic movie full stop, and it's always welcome when it pops up on telly, especially around the holidays.

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We all know that Michael Caine led the cast, but do you remember who else made up the heist gang in the comedy crime caper?

Below we take a closer look at all of the major players in The Italian Job, and zip through what they did in the years after the movie.

Michael Caine as Charlie Croker

Despite the all-star cast, Michael Caine was the central figure around which the whole of The Italian Job orbited. He played the recently released con Charlie Croker who has the idea of nicking that stash of gold.

Before The Italian Job there were hits like Zulu, The Ipcress File and Alfie. After it, there are more films than we could begin to list now, so we'll just mention a handful of our absolute favourites:

Get Carter, The Man Who Would Be King, Educating Rita, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Children of Men, Nolan's Batman trilogy (and all those other Nolan movies) etc. etc. etc. all the way up to 2023's The Great Escaper, Caine's last movie before his retirement.

Noël Coward as Mr. Bridger

Noël Coward was a cultural legend long before popping up as crime Lord Mr Bridger.

Yes he was an accomplished actor and singer too, but he was probably best known as an incredibly accomplished playwright, with over 50 works to his name. He also wrote hundreds of songs, including 'Mad About The Boy', 'Ill See You Again' Mad Dogs and Englishmen', 'Someday I'll Find You' and 'London Pride'.

He was knighted in 1970 and died in 1973 aged 73, just a few years after his turn in The Italian Job.

Benny Hill as Professor Simon Peach

Another star who blazed his path away from the movies, Benny Hill was a TV legend before he popped up as computer expert Simon Peach.

The Benny Hill Show launched way back in 1955 and was not just one of the most watched shows in the UK, but exported around the world thanks to its reliance on visual gags.

Before The Italian Job there were memorable big screen turns in a few films, with Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang being especially worthy of note.

After The Italian Job, well, The Benny Hill Show carried on all the way to 1989. He had started work on Benny Hill's World Tour, but he died on April 18, 1922, not long after suffering a heart attack and kidney failure, aged only 68.

Raf Vallone as Altabani

A bona fide Italian actor, Raf Vallone played a mafia boss to perfection in The Italian Job.

In his life before acting he was a Serie A footballer for Torino, and when he hung up his football boots, he soon became an established star of Italian cinema and theatre too, with his turn in Sidney Lumet's 1962 adaptation of A View From A Bridge especially notable.

He had been in a fair few English language movies before The Italian Job (including El Cid and Rosebud), and after The Italian Job featured in The Kremlin Letter, The Greek Tycoon and Lion of the Desert.

He also popped up in The Godfather III as the future Pope John Paul I.

Vallone was made a Knight's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his contributions to the arts in 1994.

He died of a heart attack on October 31, 2002 at the age of 86.

Tony Beckley as Camp Freddie

A RADA graduate, Tony Beckley was perfectly cast as Camp Freddie, Mr Bridger's flamboyant right-hand man.

He was best known for his excellent stage work across his career, but before The Italian Job had already worked with director Peter Collinson on The Penthouse and The Long Day's Dying.

After the hit 1969 movie, he was an in demand character actor in movies like The Lost Continent, Get Carter, Gold and The Revenge of the Pink Panther.

His sole starring role came in 1972's The Fiend, and his last movie role was in 1979's When A Stranger Calls.

Always a brilliant villain, among his TV turns was baddie Harrison Chase in the six-part Doctor Who serial The Seeds of Doom in 1976.

Beckley remained active on stage and was lining up more big and small screen roles before his death on April 19, 1980, aged just 50

Rossano Brazzi as Roger Beckerman

Another Italian star, Rossano Brazzi was a screen idol back home before making the leap to Hollywood, establishing himself in hits like David Lean's Summertime and Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific before playing criminal mastermind Roger Beckerman in The Italian Job.

He continued to act in both the US (Hawaii Five-O, Omen III: The Final Conflict, Fear City) and Italy (Catherine and I, Final Justice, Formula For a Murder) in the years that followed, with his final film role being Fatal Frames – Fotogrammi mortali.

He died on Christmas Eve in 1994 at the age of 78 after contracting a neural virus.

Maggie Blye as Lorna

Maggie Blye had a few screen roles before she won he part of Lorna, Croker's glfriend and reserve getaway driver for the heist.

After that there were parts in movies like 1975's Hard Times and turns in The Sporting Club and Walking Tall: The Final Chapter. She also played Liz Taylor's daughter in 1973 movie Ash Wednesday.

She continued to act for decades, with later roles including the comedy films Mischief, Soft Toilet Seats and 2004's The Gingerdead Man.

Blye died of cancer the age od 73 on March 24, 2016.