Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Supersex,’ the limelight falls on Rocco Siffredi, who rises to become one of the most popular and successful actors in the adult film industry. While it is his own passion that drives him towards porn movies, he also has a lot of people to thank for putting their trust in him and backing him when no one else put their faith in him. One of the people who helped Rocco early on in his career was his agent, Riccardo Schicchi. Eventually, the duo parted ways. What happened to Riccardo after that?
Riccardo Schicchi Died After a Prolonged Health Battle
Riccardo Schicchi died at the age of 60 on December 9, 2012, at Fatebenefratelli St. Peter’s Hospital in Rome. He had been hospitalized after the complications created by the aggravation of diabetes mellitus, with which he had been living for a while. He had been on dialysis for several years. His condition deteriorated, and he even fell into a coma for a while but recovered from it. However, his situation didn’t get better, and he passed away surrounded by his family. Riccardo is survived by his children, Riccardino and Mercedes, whom he had with Eva Henger, with whom he was separated.
Born in Sicily in 1952, Riccardo started out with a career in radio broadcast and photography. Following his graduation from art high school, he landed a job for Epoca, which took him to all kinds of places in the world. It was after his chance meeting with Hungarian model Ilona Staller that he saw a different path for himself. He officially entered the porn industry in 1979 with the release of ‘Cicciolina Amore Mio,’ which starred Staller. By 1983, he and Staller had co-founded a talent agency called Diva Futura. Riccardo’s other famous works include films like ‘Telefono Rosso,’ and ‘The Rise of the Roman Empress,’ among others.
Following the success of adult films, Riccardo decided to join politics. He joined Marco Pannella’s Radical Party. While to some people, someone from porn movies joining politics might have seemed absurd, expectations were subverted by Ilona Staller when she became the first porn star in the world to be democratically elected to the parliament in 1987. Motivated by Staller’s success, Riccardo tried to do something more, and in 1990, co-founded Party of Love with Moana Pozzi, one of the porn stars he represented. Of the many agendas of their party, a few were things like the legalization of brothels and the creation of “love parks.” They were also focused on the nature of sex education in the country. Unfortunately for the party, it did not reach the quorum to be recognised by the parliament of the country.
Apart from sex and politics, crime was another aspect of Riccardo’s life. In 2006, he received a six-year prison sentence for the violation of Italian immigration and sex work laws. Reportedly, he was accused of illegally bringing girls from Hungary for sex work in Italy through his talent agency. In 2008, he was also found to be involved in the Vallettopoli scandal, in which women were lured with money and stardom and were instead used in a blackmail scheme. For his part, Riccardo was arrested, though he was later let go, but had to pay 800 euros for being involved in prostitution.
While there is a lot to Riccardo’s story, Netflix’s ‘Supersex’ only presents him from the perspective of Rocco Siffredi, for whom Riccardo was like a father figure. Receiving representation from him at the age of 20 and being the only male actor the talent agent represented was a significant career move for Rocco, who confessed that he owes his success to Riccardo. Calling him a passionate man with an acute sense of business, Rocco Siffredi considers Riccardo a genius in Italian porn, calling his death a huge loss to the industry.
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