Roberto Benigni

Benigni is currently directing a new film called "La tigre et la neve", shooting in Rome, Tunisia, and Umbria. He died of heart failure in London. Benigni was censored again in the 1980s for calling the Pope John Paul II something impolite during an important live TV show. His famously mangled English is a put-on, apparently. After taking on the role, he made few appearances out of character and is considered the Sherlock Holmes of the 1980s and 1990s, as Basil Rathbone had been before him from his 1940s films. It was an unprecedented fact, given that until that moment Italian politicians were proverbially serious and formal (and Berlinguer was perhaps the most serious one at all); it represented a breaking point, after which politicians experimented newer habits and "public manners", started frequenting less formal happenings and, generally speaking, modified their lifestyle in order to show a more popular, "familiar" look. Although he appeared in so many films and was such a familiar face on television, Brett is now best remembered for portraying Sherlock Holmes in a long series of television films (from 1984 to 1994), based on the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Little after, he appeared during a public political demonstration of the Italian Communist Party (of which he was a sympathiser), and in this occasion he took in his arms and dandled the national leader Enrico Berlinguer, a very serious figure. Brett could sing, however, as he proved when he played Danilo in The Merry Widow on television in 1968.

A great scandal for the time, the series was suspended due to censorship. He played Freddie Eynsford-Hill in the 1964 film My Fair Lady, but his singing voice was dubbed. Very popular in Italy, Benigni became famous in the 1970s for a shocking TV series called Televacca, by Renzo Arbore, in which he interpreted a particular hymn on specific biological functions. Brett's film career was never as distinguished as his stage and small-screen careers. 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. He joked that he was rarely allowed into the 20th century and never into the present day. He also starred in the first of Jarmusch's series of short films Coffee and Cigarettes (1986). Many of his appearances were in comedy roles, but usually with a classic edge (he appeared in several Noel Coward plays).

In Down By Law (1986) he plays Bob, the innocent abroad, convicted for murder, whose irrepressible good humour and optimism help him escape and find love (also starring Braschi as his beloved.) In Night on Earth (1991) he plays a cabby in Rome, causing his passenger, a priest, great discomfort by confessing his revolting sexual experiences. He played leading roles in many classic serials, notably appearing as D'Artagnan in the 1966 adaptation of The Three Musketeers. Benigni has starred in two films by American Director Jim Jarmusch. From the early 1960s onwards, Brett was rarely off British television screens. Benigni's wife, Nicoletta Braschi, has starred with him in most of the films he directed. In 1976 he married Joan Wilson, but she died in 1985, and he did not remarry. With the very popular comic actor Massimo Troisi, he played in Non ci resta che piangere (nothing left for us, but crying), a fable in which the protagonists are suddenly thrown back in time up to 15th century, just a little before 1492, so they start looking for Columbus in order to stop him before discovering the Americas, but obviously they are not able to reach him. Danvers.

Benigni also directed The Monster (Il Mostro), Il piccolo diavolo (with Walter Matthau) and Johnny Stecchino. Years later, they would appear together in the BBC's dramatization of Rebecca (1978) -- Brett playing the hero, Max de Winter, and Massey playing the sinister Mrs. Benigni's father had spent two years in a concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen, and La Vita è bella is based in part on his father's experiences; the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor (Benigni directed himself). In 1958, he married the actress, Anna Massey (daughter of Raymond Massey), but they were divorced in 1962. Benigni is probably best known for his tragicomedy Life Is Beautiful (La Vita è bella), filmed in Cortona, about a man who tries to protect his son during his internment at a Nazi concentration camp, by telling him that the Holocaust is an elaborate game and he must adhere very carefully to the rules to win. He played many classical roles on stage, including a huge amount of Shakespeare, and made his first film and television appearances in 1955. He was born in Misericordia, Tuscany, Italy. He was educated at Eton College and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Roberto Benigni (born October 27, 1952) is an Italian film and television actor and director. Brett was born in Berkswell Grange, Warwickshire, England. Jeremy Brett (born Peter Jeremy William Huggins) (November 3, 1933 - September 12, 1995) was a British actor.