Over a career spanning more than six decades, he has masqueraded as priests, gardeners and bricklayers in his quest to capture up-close photos of the rich and famous, from Princess Margaret and Jackie Kennedy to the Beatles, Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra.
But until this week, it had been a long time since Barillari had been involved in a contretemps with a celebrity.
The 79-year-old was covering a strike in Rome when he received a tip that the French actor Gérard Depardieu was dining outside Harry's Bar on Via Veneto, a famous stomping ground for the glitterati and the paparazzi who trailed them during the legendary 1960s dolce vita period.
"So I walked to Via Veneto, and I could see from a distance that it was him," Barillari said in an interview with the Guardian. "I waited for a bit, then attached my lens and started to shoot. He didn't like it."
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