Career
Born Antonio Luiz de Teffé von Hoonholtz at the Brazilian embassy in Rome, in the Pamphilj Palace, his family had noble blood of a long lineage of Count (von Hoonholtz) originally from Prussia. While still a teenager, Antonio fought in World World War II along the partisans against the Nazis. In 1962, he had a bit part in Sodom and Gomorrah.
An early appearance of his was in the 1955 Gli Sbandati.
Considered to be an "Italian Clint Eastwood", he was sometimes unfairly criticized for being a stiff or wooden actor. Several of his movies were sizeable box office hits in Europe.
Django the Bastard (aka Stranger"s Gundown, 1969) a movie that was produced and written by Steffen, is considered to be an inspiration for Clint Eastwood"s High Plains Drifter. In several of his movies, Steffen starred alongside other Spaghetti Western luminaries such as Gianni Garko, Peter Lee Lawrence, and William Berger.
Outside of the Spaghetti western genre, Steffen also appeared in several Giallo movies including.
His roles and status diminished as the Spaghetti Western genre fell into decline. Amassing a considerable fortune from his career as an actor, Steffen embarked on a jet set lifestyle. In his career Steffen performed alongside Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale, Elke Sommer, Giuliano Gemma, Franco Nero, Gian Maria Volontè, Esmeralda Barros and many other stars of the American and Italian cinema.
Always considered a huge star in Brazil because of the Spaghetti Western popularity in the South American country, Steffen returned to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the decade of 1980, until dying of cancer in 2004.
He has maintained cult-status among fans of Italian Cinema for being perhaps the most prolific Spaghetti Western Leading actor. A Coffin for the Sheriff.