ROME (AP) — Giorgio Albertazzi, a theater and film actor and director famed especially for playing, well into old age, the emperor's role based on "Memories of Hadrian," has died in his native Tuscany, Italy.

His family and Premier Matteo Renzi's office announced the 92-year-old's death Saturday, with the Italian leader hailing him as a "great personality our culture." President Sergio Mattarella described Albertazzi as a "maestro to generations of directors and actors.

In his stage performance, often in Shakespeare's plays, Albertazzi worked for some of Italy's most celebrated directors, including Lucchino Visconti, for whom he debuted in 1949, and Franco Zeffirelli.

He was most identified as an actor with a role he played more than 1,000 times, in Italy and abroad — that of Hadrian, drawing on Marguerite Yourcenar's popular book.