A white collar worker, Villaggio gained himself a reputation for his entertaining comedy performances during cabaret shows in his native Genoa. He made his debut radio appearance with “Il sabato del villaggio”, and broke into television with a number of entertainment programmes: in “Quelli della domenica” (1968) he fine-tuned the characters of professor Kranz, office worker Giandomenico Fracchia and bookkeeper Ugo Fantozzi, who was to become his trademark character. Indeed, after appearing in several films, including “Without family (Senza famiglia nullatenenti cercano affetto)” (1972) by Vittorio Gassman, “What am I doing in the middle of the revolution (Che c’entriamo noi con la rivoluzione?)” (1973) by Sergio Corbucci and “Alla mia cara mamma nel giorno del suo compleanno” (1974) by Luciano Salce, he was at last to appear, directed again by Salce, in the first “White collar blues (Fantozzi)” (1974), the first in a long and successful series of films. The star of stories penned by Villaggio published in the “L’Europeo” (and subsequently collected in a volume by Rizzoli), Italy’s unluckiest bookkeeper soon rose to the dignified status of the newest Italian mask: there were many

ear literary influences (above all, those of Gogol and Chekhov), which mingled on the big screen with visual inventions from the school of Tex Avery and the style of Frank Tashlin. Of the more than ten episodes in the long-running saga, those that most deserve a mention are “Il secondo tragico Fantozzi” (1976, directed once again by Salce), perhaps the neatest, most coesive of all; “Fantozzi against the wind (Fantozzi contro tutti)” (1980), with Neri Parenti and Villaggio himself behind the camera; “Fantozzi in heaven (Fantozzi in paradiso)” (1993), again by Neri Parenti, packed with bizarre, hilarious gags. In contrast to the trend in Italy over the last few decades, in Fantozzi Villaggio succeeded in restoring the role of visual comedy, relying little, or indeed not at all, on verbal comedy: and, most notably in the most successful films, “he plays at blowing up the ‘banal everyday punk’ into small sketches of a hyper-real and tragicomic bad taste” (O. Del Buono). While Fantozzi-inspired films – from “Mr Robinson (Il signor Robinson, mostruosa storia d’amore e di avventure)” (1976) by Sergio Corbucci to “Ho vinto la lotteria di Capodanno” (1989) by Neri Parenti – added little to his filmography, it should be stressed that Villaggio delivered outstanding performances for those directors who knew how to bring out his talent: look, for example, at his insane ex-prefect Gonella in “The voice of the moon (La voce della luna)” (1990) by Federico Fellini – which won him a David di Donatello award as best actor – or the sinister character he portrayed in “Camerieri” (1995) by Leone Pompucci, for proof of his acting ability. In 1992 he was awarded a golden lion award for his career at the Venice film

his filmography, it should be stressed that Villaggio delivered outstanding performances for those directors who knew how to bring out his talent: look, for example, at his insane ex-prefect Gonella in “The voice of the moon (La voce della luna)” (1990) by Federico Fellini – which won him a David di Donatello award as best actor – or the sinister character he portrayed in “Camerieri” (1995) by Leone Pompucci, for proof of his acting ability. In 1992 he was awarded a golden lion award for his career at the Venice film