Nino Manfredi

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person

File:Manfredi Sordi.png
Alberto Sordi and Manfredi in Will Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa? (1968)

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.<ref name=premi>Template:Cite book</ref> Typically playing losers, marginalised, working-class characters yet "in possession of their dignity, morality, and underlying optimism",<ref name=deed>Template:Cite book</ref> he was referred to as "one of the few truly complete actors in Italian cinema".<ref name="deed"/>

Life and career

Early life

Manfredi was born in Castro dei Volsci, Frosinone into a humble family of farmers.<ref name=Bernardini>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Bernardini"/> In 1937, he became seriously ill with bilateral pleurisy, and after a doctor gave him only three months to live,<ref name=Debenedetti>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Nudo d'attore">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Bernardini"/><ref name="Nudo d'attore"/> 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.<ref name="Bernardini"/>

After 8 September 1943, in order to avoid conscription, he took refuge for a year with his brother in the mountains above Cassino;<ref name="Bernardini"/> returned to Rome in 1944, he resumed his university studies and, at the same time, he enrolled at the National Academy of Dramatic Art.<ref name="Bernardini"/> 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.<ref name="Bernardini"/>

Early career

File:Nino Manfredi Fulvia Franco.jpg
Manfredi and Fulvia Franco in Of Wayward Love (1962)

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.<ref name="Bernardini"/> 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.<ref name="Bernardini"/> The same year he started working on radio as a comedian and an impersonator.<ref name="Bernardini"/> In 1949, he made his film debut in the melodrama Monastero di Santa Chiara.<ref name="Bernardini"/> In 1952, he worked with Eduardo De Filippo in Tre atti unici, along with Tino Buazzelli, Paolo Panelli and Bice Valori.<ref name="Bernardini"/> The same year he entered the revue company of the Nava sisters, and started working as a voice actor and a dubber.<ref name="Bernardini"/> In 1955, he took part to his first high-profile films, The Bachelor by Antonio Pietrangeli and Wild Love by Mauro Bolognini.<ref name="Bernardini"/>

First successes

File:Manfredi nell'anno del Signore.jpg
Manfredi in Nell'anno del Signore (1969)

In 1958, Manfredi got his first film roles as main actor.<ref name="Bernardini"/> The same year he formed a revue company with Delia Scala and Paolo Panelli, getting some success with the musical Un trapezio per Lisistrata.<ref name="Bernardini"/> 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".<ref name="Bernardini"/> 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.<ref name="Bernardini"/>

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.<ref name="Bernardini"/> The same year he directed the critically appreciated segment "L'avventura di un soldato" in the anthology film Of Wayward Love.<ref name="Bernardini"/> In 1963 he starred in Luis García Berlanga's masterpiece The Executioner.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Commedia all'italiana icon

File:Geppetto Manfredi.jpg
Manfredi as Geppetto in the TV series The Adventures of Pinocchio (1972)

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.<ref name="Bernardini"/><ref name=Giacovelli>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1969, with Nell'anno del Signore, he started a fruitful collaboration with the director Luigi Magni.<ref name="Bernardini"/><ref name="Giacovelli"/> In the same period he started collaborating, often uncredited, to the screenplays of his films.<ref name="Bernardini"/>

In 1970, he enjoyed a large musical success with the Ettore Petrolini's song "Tanto pe' cantà"; the song premiered, out of competition, at the Sanremo Music Festival and it peaked at third place on the Italian hit parade.<ref name="Bernardini"/><ref name=hitparade>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1971, he made his feature film debut as director with the semi-autobiographical Between Miracles, with which he got almost unanimous critical acclaim, winning the Best Film Work Award at the Cannes Film Festival, the Italian Golden Globe for Best First Feature, two Silver Ribbons (for best screenplay and best original story) and a special David di Donatello.<ref name="Bernardini"/> In 1972 he got a major television success playing Geppetto in the Luigi Comencini's adaptation The Adventures of Pinocchio.<ref name="Bernardini"/><ref name=Grasso>Aldo Grasso, Massimo Scaglioni. Enciclopedia della Televisione. Garzanti, Milano, 1996 – 2003. Template:ISBN.</ref> In the 1970s and early 1980s, he continued alternating high-profile works and less ambitious comedies; among the most successful performances of the time, the emarginated immigrant of Bread and Chocolate (1973), the idealist worker of We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974), the old shanty town patriarch of Down and Dirty (1976), the Vatican's magistrate of In the Name of the Pope King (1977), the abusive coffee-seller in Café Express (1980).<ref name="Bernardini"/><ref name="Giacovelli"/>

File:C'eravamo tanto amati, film.jpg
Manfredi (centre) with Vittorio Gassman and Stefano Satta Flores in We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974)

Later career

Following his last film as director (Portrait of a Woman, Nude) and two commercial hit films starred alongside Renato Pozzetto (Heads I Win, Tails You Lose and Questo e Quello), in the 1980s, Manfredi significantly slowed his cinema activities.<ref name="Bernardini"/>

In 1983, he debuted as author with the book Proverbi e altre cose romanesche, while in 1984, he signed his first work as playwright and stage director (Viva gli sposi), an activity in which he gradually focused.<ref name="Bernardini"/> In 1990 he received a David di Donatello career award.<ref name="Bernardini"/> In 1992, after having first accepted to be a candidate at the elections with the Pannella List, he withdrawn the candidature to not give up his artistic commitments.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1993, during the shooting of Un commissario a Roma, he suffered a hypoxia which compromised his memory functions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Starting from Un commissario a Roma his popularity revamped thanks to a series of successful RAI TV-series and miniseries, notably Linda e il brigadiere.<ref name="Bernardini"/><ref name="Grasso"/>

Last role and death

Manfredi's last role was Galapago, an almost mute stranger with no memory in Miguel Hermoso's Spanish drama film The End of a Mystery. On 7 July 2003, a few months after the release of the film, he was struck by a cerebral infarction in his home in Rome.<ref name=intensiva>Template:Cite news</ref> In August, he received a Career Bianchi Prize at the Venice Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In September, an improvement allowed him to return home, but in December, he was hit by a new cerebral hemorrhage.<ref name="intensiva"/> After spending six months in a continuous alternation of improvements and deteriorations, he died on 4 June 2004, aged eighty-three years old.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

File:Viale Nino Manfredi.JPG
"Viale Nino Manfredi", a street named after him in Rome

Manfredi was married to model Erminia Ferrari from 1955 till his death. The couple had a son, Luca (who is a film and television director), and two daughters, Roberta (an actress, television presenter and producer) and Giovanna.<ref name="Bernardini"/> He had another daughter, Tonina, from a Bulgarian woman.

From an early age, Manfredi suffered from a biliary disorder which forced him to a very strict diet, and his meals often consisted of just light tea or caffè d'orzo.<ref name="Tornabuoni">Template:Cite news</ref> He was an atheist.<ref name="Tornabuoni" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Active in volunteering, in 1991, he was nominated Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.<ref name="Bernardini"/>

Legacy

In 2007, an asteroid (73453 Ninomanfredi) was named after him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2009, a Nino Manfredi Prize was established at the Nastro d’Argento Awards.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Manfredi also named a theatre in Ostia, Rome.

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his death, in 2014, Manfredi was remembered by "Nino!", a series of events, held in various places including Los Angeles, New York, Rome and Paris, which included retrospectives, exhibitions, and the staging of an unreleased play of Manfredi.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2017, his son Luca Manfredi directed a biographical film about Manfredi's early years, In arte Nino; Manfredi was played by Elio Germano, while Miriam Leone played his wife Erminia.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Template:Br

Filmography

Cinema

Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

Television

Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

Director

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Commons category-inline

Template:David di Donatello Best Actor Template:Nastro d'Argento Best Actor

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Nino_Manfredi&oldid=434381"