BUDAPEST — Rocco Siffredi's longtime collaborator, and cousin, Gabriele Galetta, known professionally as Gabriel Zero, passed away today, early afternoon in Europe, according to a message the Italian performer posted on his public Instagram account.
Siffredi posted on his Instagram a photo of himself and a smiling Galetta at the 2019 XBIZ Awards ceremony with the following message in Italian:
Today is the saddest day since the death of my mom on March 15, 1991.
The great Gabriele, my cousin, my greatest friend, my greatest supporter, my greatest fan, my greatest source of inspiration, the person who made me who I am today, the man who loved my world the most, the man who never spared himself, the creator of the Accademia, the friend to everyone, the man with the golden heart.
A few hours ago Jesus took him back leaving a priceless void… and a unique sadness.
Nayeli his wife, Nora and Rayan his children, I will always be close to you.
In an interview with XBIZ last June to promote his latest series, "Rocco's Time Master," Siffredi spoke about the close bond that united him and Galetta.
Galetta had been a fundamental part of his cousin's projects, scripting several of Siffredi's features through the years. He was creatively responsible for some of the most famous Siffredi productions during the charismatic leading man's original triumphal phase in the early 1990s.
“I’ve always worked with my cousin Gabriele, for the last 25 years,” Siffredi told XBIZ.
"Once in a while Gabriele comes out with funny ideas because he loves history. He really loves the idea of using porn to tell these kinds of stories," Siffredi said about the "Time Master" project that brought the cousins back to their ancestral roots.
“We wanted to shoot in Abruzzi, because the story connects with the country where I’m from and he’s also from,” he explained.
Abruzzi, or Abruzzo, is the region in central (Italians would say Southern) Italy east of Rome, on the Adriatic, where Siffredi and Galetta were born five decades ago.
"When Gabriele and I were young, we would play in the local castle, and we knew the history of the place,” Siffredi explained. “Everyone knew that they used to burn the witches there hundreds of years ago. Witches were artists! When Gabriele came up with the idea, I was immediately excited and told him ‘I’m gonna use the castle in the town we were born.’”
In a 2016 Hollywood Reporter review of the documentary "Rocco," critic Boyd van Hoeij characterized the peculiar relationship between the cousins.
"Gabriele Galetta, Rocco’s very similar-looking cousin who had a short-lived career as a porn performer that was cut short by erection-on-demand problems, now handles the camera duties on Siffredi’s films," wrote van Hoeij. "He also frequently comes up with crazy ideas for lead-ins to sex scenes, which more than occasionally causes friction between the two."
"When Galetta seems only halfway through an explanation of a very complicated-sounding set-up, Rocco fires off a very astute: 'Yes, but when do they fuck?'"
Friends report that the funeral will be held tomorrow.
