Nino Manfredi

Saturnino "Nino" Manfredi (22 March 1921 – 4 June 2004) was an Italian actor, voice actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, comedian, singer, author, radio personality and television presenter.

He was one of the most prominent Italian actors in the commedia all'italiana genre. During his career he won several awards, including six David di Donatello awards, six Nastro d'Argento awards and the Prix de la première oeuvre (Best First Work Award) at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival for Between Miracles. Typically playing losers, marginalised, working-class characters yet "in possession of their dignity, morality, and underlying optimism", he was referred to as "one of the few truly complete actors in Italian cinema".

Manfredi was born in Castro dei Volsci, Frosinone into a humble family of farmers. His father recruited in Public Safety, where he reached the rank of Maresciallo, and in the early 1930s, he was transferred to Rome, where Nino and his younger brother Dante spent their childhood in the popular neighborhood of San Giovanni. In 1937, he became seriously ill with bilateral pleurisy, and after a doctor gave him only three months to live, he remained several years hospitalized in a sanatorium; there he learned to play a banjo built by himself and he entered the musical band of the hospital. To please his family in October 1941, he enrolled at the university in the Faculty of Law, but already in the same year he showed an interest and a natural inclination for the stage, making his debut as a presenter and an actor in the theater of a parish in Rome.

After 8 September 1943, in order to avoid conscription, he took refuge for a year with his brother in the mountains above Cassino; returned to Rome in 1944, he resumed his university studies and, at the same time, he enrolled at the National Academy of Dramatic Art. In October 1945, he graduated in law with a thesis in criminal law, without ever practicing the profession, and in June 1947, he graduated from the academy.

Manfredi made his official stage debut in 1947, working in plays directed by Luigi Squarzina and Vito Pandolfi. The same year, he entered the Maltagliati-Gassman stage company, mostly acting in dramatic roles. In 1948, he entered the company of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano under Giorgio Strehler, playing in tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet and The Storm. The same year he started working on radio as a comedian and an impersonator. In 1949, he made his film debut in the melodrama Monastero di Santa Chiara. In 1952, he worked with Eduardo De Filippo in Tre atti unici, along with Tino Buazzelli, Paolo Panelli and Bice Valori. The same year he entered the revue company of the Nava sisters, and started working as a voice actor and a dubber. In 1955, he took part to his first high-profile films, The Bachelor by Antonio Pietrangeli and Wild Love by Mauro Bolognini.

In 1958, Manfredi got his first film roles as main actor. The same year he formed a revue company with Delia Scala and Paolo Panelli, getting some success with the musical Un trapezio per Lisistrata. In 1959, the trio was chosen by RAI to host Canzonissima; the show marked the turning point of the career of Manfredi, who enjoyed a very large popularity, mainly thanks to the "macchietta" (i.e. comic caricature) of the "Barman from Ceccano". The success immediately got him a contract with Dino De Laurentiis which he dropped after one year to be free to choose his favorite projects.

In 1962, Manfredi enjoyed an even larger success playing the title role in the stage musical Rugantino, with which he toured also in Canada, the US, and Argentina. The same year he directed the critically appreciated segment "L'avventura di un soldato" in the anthology film Of Wayward Love. In 1963 he starred in Luis García Berlanga's masterpiece The Executioner.

Starting from the second half of the 1960s, Manfredi became a top actor at the Italian box office, starring in some of the most successful and critically acclaimed films in the Commedia all'italiana genre, often directed by Dino Risi. In 1969, with Nell'anno del Signore, he started a fruitful collaboration with the director Luigi Magni. In the same period he started collaborating, often uncredited, to the screenplays of his films.