None of the leading roles in Bicycle Thieves were played by professional actors. However, some did make other films after this 1948 feature. Lamberto Maggiorani played small roles in several films, including an unbilled bit in De Sica's Umberto D. (1952) and a small role in the same director's The Last Judgment (1961). Enzo Staiola also played small roles, even turning up in a bit part in A Tale of Five Women (1951), which also featured Maggiorani; he also had a small part in the Hollywood film The Barefoot Contessa (1954). He eventually gave up acting to become a math teacher. Lianella Carell, Antonio's wife, worked for Vittoria De Sica again as Toto's wife in The Gold of Naples (1954). Ironically, the one professional actor in the film, Vittorio Antonucci, who played the thief, never made another film.
Julien Duvivier's 1952 French comedy Holiday for Henrietta features a reference to Bicycle Thieves when a screenwriter in search of a story reads the newspaper account of a man stealing a bicycle when his is stolen.
Indian director Satyajit Ray has acknowledged the film's influence on his breakthrough picture, Pather Panchali (1955), the first film in his "Apu Trilogy.” Bicycle Thieves has also been credited as an influence on the work of Ingmar Bergman and on the new Iranian cinema.
De Sica's work, particularly Bicycle Thieves, was a major influence on the rise of the American independent film movement. Young directors like Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma in the 1960s followed his example in taking their cameras to the streets, while John Cassavetes excelled at mixing professional actors with non-actor friends, family members and others.
Bicycle Thieves inspired the 1978 Reggae musical Rockers, starring Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, and the 1994 independent film Messenger, directed by Norman Loftis and set in the African-American community.
Woody Allen included a scene with a bedridden fortune teller in his 1984 film Broadway Danny Rose as a tribute to Bicycle Thieves.
Tim Burton's 1985 Pee-wee's Big Adventure uses the theft of Pee-wee Herman's bicycle as the excuse for the title character's madcap tour of the U.S.
In 1989, Maurizio Nichetti directed a loving spoof of the film called The Icicle Thief, which starred famed Italian clown Roberto Benigni.
For its 50th anniversary, Bicycle Thieves was reissued in a newly restored print. It played to ecstatic reviews and was a surprising financial success.
Numerous television shows have referenced the film, including a 2009 episode of Nurse Jackie, in which the hospital administrator, played by Anna Deavere Smith, thanks a film critic under hospital care for recommending the film.
