Aldo Fabrizi

Beloved, hugely popular Italian comic character actor/writer/director, in music halls and variety shows for much of his early career. Fabrizi entered films in 1942 and often wrote and directed his vehicles, winning international acclaim in the Roberto Rossellini's neorealist drama Rome, Open City (1945), in which he played a priest who bravely defies the fascist regime. Heavy in heart and girth, he performed primarily in Neopolitan films for over four decades. Such notable post-war films include To Live in Peace (1946), Professor My Son (1946), Flesh Will Surrender (1947), Escape Into Dreams (1948), Immigrants (1949), Cops and Robbers (1951), Five Paupers in an Automobile 1952), Of Life and Love (1954) and The Teacher and the Miracle (1957), all co-written by Fabrizi. A master of the double take, he adapted equally well to comedy and drama, but did not earn much recognition in America. He devoted much of his time in later years to the culinary arts, writing several cookbooks and related poetry. He died of a heart ailment in his 85th year.