Nino Manfredi

Saturnino "Nino" Manfredi, born on 22 March 1921 in Castro dei Volsci, Frosinone, Italy, was an actor, voice actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, comedian, singer, author, radio personality, and television presenter. He died on 4 June 2004 at the age of eighty-three. Over the course of his career he earned six David di Donatello awards, six Nastro d'Argento awards, and the Prix de la première oeuvre at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival for his directorial debut, Between Miracles.

Manfredi was raised in a farming family. His father, who rose to the rank of Maresciallo in Public Safety, was transferred to Rome in the early 1930s, and Manfredi spent his childhood in the San Giovanni neighborhood alongside his younger brother Dante. In 1937 he contracted bilateral pleurisy and was hospitalized in a sanatorium for several years after a doctor gave him three months to live. During that period he constructed a banjo and played in the hospital's musical band. In October 1941 he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at university, while simultaneously beginning to perform as a presenter and actor in a parish theater in Rome. Following the armistice of 8 September 1943, he and his brother took refuge for a year in the mountains above Cassino to avoid conscription. Returning to Rome in 1944, he resumed his law studies and enrolled at the National Academy of Dramatic Art. He graduated in law in October 1945 with a thesis in criminal law and completed his academy training in June 1947.

His official stage debut came in 1947, working in productions directed by Luigi Squarzina and Vito Pandolfi. That same year he joined the Maltagliati-Gassman stage company, performing primarily in dramatic roles. In 1948 he became part of Giorgio Strehler's Piccolo Teatro di Milano, appearing in productions including Romeo and Juliet and The Storm. He also began working in radio as a comedian and impersonator that year, and in 1949 made his film debut in the melodrama Monastero di Santa Chiara. In 1952 he collaborated with Eduardo De Filippo in Tre atti unici alongside Tino Buazzelli, Paolo Panelli, and Bice Valori, and began working as a voice actor and dubber. His first prominent film appearances came in 1955 with The Bachelor, directed by Antonio Pietrangeli, and Wild Love, directed by Mauro Bolognini.

By 1958 Manfredi had secured leading film roles, and that year he formed a revue company with Delia Scala and Paolo Panelli, finding success with the musical Un trapezio per Lisistrata. In 1959 the trio was selected by RAI to host Canzonissima, a television program that significantly expanded his public profile, largely through his comic caricature of the "Barman from Ceccano." The show's success led to a contract with Dino De Laurentiis, which Manfredi left after one year to retain creative freedom. In 1962 he took on the title role in the stage musical Rugantino, touring the production through Canada, the United States, and Argentina. That same year he directed the segment "L'avventura di un soldato" in the anthology film Of Wayward Love, and in 1963 he starred in Luis García Berlanga's The Executioner.

In 1964, Manfredi brought Rugantino to Broadway, marking his appearance on the New York stage. The production represented the international reach of a role that had already established him as a major theatrical presence in Italy and across multiple continents.

From the mid-1960s onward, Manfredi became one of the leading figures of the commedia all'italiana genre, frequently collaborating with director Dino Risi. In 1969 he began a sustained working relationship with director Luigi Magni on Nell'anno del Signore. In 1970 he achieved considerable musical success with Ettore Petrolini's song "Tanto pe' cantà," which premiered out of competition at the Sanremo Music Festival and reached third place on the Italian hit parade. His 1971 directorial feature Between Miracles earned the Best Film Work Award at Cannes, the Italian Golden Globe for Best First Feature, two Silver Ribbons for best screenplay and best original story, and a special David di Donatello. In 1972 he reached a broad television audience playing Geppetto in Luigi Comencini's adaptation The Adventures of Pinocchio. His notable film performances of the 1970s included the immigrant protagonist of Bread and Chocolate (1973), a role in We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974), Down and Dirty (1976), In the Name of the Pope King (1977), and Café Express (1980).

In 1983 Manfredi published his first book, Proverbi e altre cose romanesche, and in 1984 he wrote and directed his first stage work as playwright, Viva gli sposi, an activity he increasingly pursued in subsequent years. He received a David di Donatello career award in 1990 and was nominated Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in 1991. In 1993, during the filming of Un commissario a Roma, he suffered a hypoxia that affected his memory, though he continued working in a series of successful RAI television productions, including Linda e il brigadiere. His final screen role was Galapago in Miguel Hermoso's Spanish film The End of a Mystery. On 7 July 2003 he suffered a cerebral infarction at his home in Rome, and in August of that year he received a Career Bianchi Prize at the Venice Film Festival. A subsequent cerebral hemorrhage in December 2003 preceded a prolonged period of declining health, and he died on 4 June 2004.

Manfredi was married to model Erminia Ferrari from 1955 until his death. They had a son, Luca, a film and television director, and two daughters, Roberta, an actress, television presenter, and producer, and Giovanna. He also had a daughter, Tonina, from a Bulgarian woman. In 2007 an asteroid, 73453 Ninomanfredi, was named in his honor, and in 2009 the Nastro d'Argento Awards established a Nino Manfredi Prize in his name.