'House of Gucci' true story: The real people of Gucci case - Los Angeles Times

It was likely Aldo Gucci who began the story that the family was descended from noble saddlemakers to the medieval courts, when his father and company founder Guccio Gucci actually began his career working at the Savoy Hotel in London before opening a small shop in his native Florence, Italy.

The film focuses on the story of Maurizio Gucci and his wife, Patrizia, as her ambitions to be part of a world of extreme wealth and power lead her to orchestrate his 1995 murder.

Played by Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, Patrizia and Maurizio are part of a constellation of characters in the movie, which also includes Maurizio’s father, Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons), his uncle Aldo (Al Pacino) and cousin Paolo (Jared Leto), among others.

The movie compresses and streamlines the story — Patrizia and Maurizio had two daughters, not just one; Aldo Gucci had three sons, not just Paolo; Maurizio was shot four times, not just three — with the book dedicating much more space to the business machinations and seemingly endless lawsuits the family members would file against one another.

Roberto Gucci, one of Aldo Gucci’s sons not depicted in the movie, went on to run a small leather goods business in Florence after selling his shares of the family company, and once said, “The Guccis were a great family.

When Patrizia and Maurizio were together, the Italian press dubbed her “the Joan Collins of Monte Napoleone,” referring to an upscale shopping street in Milan.

In Forden’s book, as Maurizio rises in the company, his own father, Rodolfo, tells Patrizia, “Once he gets money and power, he will change.” Those words would prove prophetic, as Maurizio would ultimately maneuver his own family members from the company.

In 1993, after Maurizio sold his 50% interest in Gucci to the same investment firm he had brought in to buy up his relatives’ shares, there would no longer be anyone from the Gucci family involved in running Gucci.

The oldest son of company founder Guccio Gucci, it was Aldo Gucci who oversaw the brand‘s rise to international heights, becoming a status symbol of wealth and luxury.

In 1989, he sold his shares in Gucci and died one year later.

The youngest son of Guccio Gucci, Rodolfo Gucci was initially a film actor before joining the family business after WWII.

His wife, actress Alessandra Winkelhausen Gucci, died at age 44 in 1954 when their son Maurizio was only 5 years old.

Rodolfo never remarried and doted on Maurizio throughout the rest of his childhood.

(Maurizio was named after Rodolfo’s screen name, Maurizio D’Ancora.) Toward the end of his life, as he battled cancer, Rodolfo would premiere “Il Cinema Nella Mia Vita,” or “The Film of My Life,” in part a documentary about his own life and in part a plea to Maurizio to safeguard the family legacy.

While the movie only implies that Patrizia forged the signatures, a longtime assistant to Rodolfo testified that she in fact committed the act.

Hired by Rodolfo Gucci after De Sole stood up to Aldo Gucci in a meeting, De Sole would rise to be CEO of Gucci America in 1984 and become CEO of Gucci Group from 1994 to 2004

De Sole is largely credited with being the business mastermind behind the runaway success of the Tom Ford years once Maurizio Gucci had sold his interest in the company