Film director, actor, writer, and producer, born in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy. At the age of 10 he became a member of a troubadour act in Tuscany, improvising songs and poetry. He then moved to Rome and started working with various experimental theatre groups. His film debut as an actor came with Berlinger ti Volgio Bene (1976, Have You Berliner). Later films as an actor include Il Minestrone (1980), La Voce Della Luna (1989, The Voice of the Moon), The Son of the Pink Panther (1993), Astérix et Obélix Contre César (1999, Asterix and Obelix Take on Caesar), and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003). In 1982 he made his directorial debut with Tu Mi Turbi (You Disturb Me), a television monologue which criticized Pope John Paul II and brought Benigni widespread fame. Later films as a director include Il Piccolo Diavolo (1988, The Little Devil) and Mostro (1994, Monster). In 1997 he made his most successful film to date, La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful, Oscars for Best Actor and Best Foreign Language Film), which he wrote, starred in, and directed. He is one of Italy's most popular comics.
| Roberto Benigni | |
|
Roberto Benigni while receiving a prize. |
|
| Born |
October 27, 1952 Misericordia, Arezzo, Italy |
|
Academy Awards |
Best Actor, 1998 Life is Beautiful |
Roberto Benigni (born October 27, 1952) is an Oscar-winning Italian film and television actor, writer and director.
Biography
Early years
Benigni was born in Misericordia, a frazione of Castiglion Fiorentino, province of Arezzo (Tuscany) and raised in Manciano.
Benigni became famous in Italy in the 1970s for a shocking TV series called Televacca, by Renzo Arbore, in which he interpreted the satirical piece "anthem of the melting body" (L'inno del corpo sciolto), a hymn to defecation.
His popularity increased with another Arbore's show, L'altra domenica (1978), in which Benigni portrayed a lazy film critic who has never watched the movie he is called to speak of.
1980s
Benigni's first movie as director was Tu mi turbi (You upset me, 1983).
With the very popular comic actor Massimo Troisi, in 1984 he played in Non ci resta che piangere ("Nothing left to do but cry"), a fable in which the protagonists are suddenly thrown back in time to the 15th century, just a little before 1492.
Benigni in America and the collaboration with Cerami
Beginning in 1986, Benigni starred in three films by American director Jim Jarmusch. The former years Benigni had started a long-lasting collaboration with screenwriter Vincenzo Cerami, for a series of films which scored great success in Italy: Il piccolo diavolo ("The little devil", with Walter Matthau), Johnny Stecchino ("Johnny Toothpick"), and Il Mostro ("The Monster").
Life is Beautiful and beyond
Benigni is probably best known for his 1997 tragicomedy Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella), filmed in Cortona and Arezzo, also written by Cerami. In 1998, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and Benigni personally won two of them: Best Foreign Language Film (awarded to the director) and Best Actor.
Benigni also was one of the main characters in Asterix and Obelix Take On Caesar as Detritus, a corrupted Roman tax collector who wants to kill the Caesar and claim the throne of the Roman Empire.
As a director, his 2001's Pinocchio, one of the most costly films of Italian cinema, was coldly received by critics, and bombed in North America.
Benigni's latest film is La tigre e la neve (The Tiger and the Snow, 2005), about the Iraq War.
On October 15, 2005, he performed an impromptu strip tease on Italy's most watched evening news program, removing his shirt and draping it over the newscaster's shoulders. Prior to removing his shirt, Benigni had already hijacked the opening credits of the news program, jumping behind the newscaster and announcing: "Berlusconi has resigned" (Benigni is an outspoken critic of media tycoon and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi).
Other media
Benigni is also a well appreciated improvisatory poet (poesia estemporanea is a form of art popularly followed and practiced in Tuscany), and is appreciated for his recitations of Dante's Divina Commedia by memory.
An animated clay Benigni fights and defeats Benito Mussolini in a Celebrity Deathmatch episode.
|
Preceded by: Jack Nicholson for As Good As It Gets |
Academy Award for Best Actor 1998 for Life Is Beautiful |
Succeeded by: Kevin Spacey for American Beauty |
User Comments Add a comment…