It marks the end of a generation of the industrial family whose place in the Italian public's imagination can be likened only to that of the Kennedys in the U.S. —except that it was bigger.
Agnelli died unexpectedly at 69 only 16 months after his elder brother Giovanni (Gianni) predeceased him.
His passing has thrown into doubt the future of Fiat Auto, centrepiece of the Agnelli family empire and symbol of Italy's post-war economic renaissance.
Umberto Agnelli (AP photo)
- FROM JAN. 24, 2003: Giovanni Agnelli, head of Fiat, dies at 81
"In a moment in which he was realizing his dream as a businessman, Umberto was hit by an aggressive and incurable disease, after having already suffered a great deal from the death of his son,'' said Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
It will be the first time the company is without a senior family member on its board since it was founded in 1899 by Umberto and Gianni's grandfather.
In another parallel with the U.S. family dynasty, the Agnelli family has been struck by a series of tragic deaths including those of Gianni's heirs-apparent.
Umberto's father Edoardo died in a plane crash when he was an infant. His mother died in a car accident in 1945.
Umberto's son Giovanni Alberto died from a rare cancer in 1997 at age 33; his , while Gianni's son Edoardo committed suicide in 2000 by jumping from a viaduct.
Marlboro-smoker Umberto died of lymphatic cancer. Survivors include his wife Allegra, son, Andrea, and daughter Anna.
It leaves on Fiat's board only John Elkann, Gianni's grandson, who at 27 years is seen as lacking the experience to take control of Fiat.
Fiat, with annual revenues of about 50bn euros ($60 billion U.S.), has lost almost 6 billion euros ($7.4bn) in the last two years. It forced the Agnellis in 2002 to take on board an outside shareholder, General Motors of the U.S.
Umberto took the top job at Fiat in 2003 following Gianni's death and amid disagreements with the American shareholder.
His tenure was seen at the time as representing the family's last-ditch attempt to retain control of and avoid bankruptcy for the iconic Italian carmaker, which is Italy's biggest private sector employer with 80,000 employees.
Soft-spoken law graduate Umberto lived in the shadow of his more flamboyant, playboy brother Gianni, revered in the country as the "uncrowned King of Italy".
Umberto enjoyed modern art, skiing and golf. He was an Italian senator between 1976 and 1979, and he formerly chaired the Juventus soccer club, owned by the Agnellis.
Much of his career was spent extending his family holding Ifil's reach into other industries by making acquisitions in other sectors such as travel, finance and media.
As chief executive of the car division or the Fiat group for much of the seventies and the eighties, he was held responsible for much of the malaise Fiat found itself in by the nineties.
He was denied the post of chairman in 1994 after the powerful Mediobanca bank intervened to keep Gianni from retiring. In 1996, when Gianni moved to the post of honorary chairman, the was again snubbed for the bank's candidate, Cesare Romiti.
Acceding finally to Gianni's post in 2003, Umberto decisively tackled the crisis.
He took an aggressive stance with GM, nixing any talk of a sale, and pulled together a deal with Italian banks that will see 3 billion euros of fresh capital injected into Fiat.
The deal reduces the Agnellis's stake in the company to below a quarter and banks are expected to take a similar-sized share.
Umberto brought in no-nonsense chief executive Giuseppe Morchio and other outside managers to turn Fiat around and lay off thousands of Fiat employees.
His final actions may well ensure that Fiat survives as an independent Italian-controlled family company. But his death means it is unlikely to be lead by someone named Agnelli.
