Alberto Sordi, the great Italian actor was born 103 years ago. PHOTO

On 15 June 1920, Alberto Sordi was born in Rome, one of the most important actors in Italian cinema. Capable of interpreting comic, tragic and grotesque roles with the same skill, he was able to stage the strengths and weaknesses of the average Italian with his unforgettable characters. Thus becoming the face on film of post-war Italy between rebirth, “dolce vita” and crisis

Alberto Sordi Secret, unpublished life stories and revelations in the book by Igor Righetti

Son of a bass tuba professor, member of the Rome Opera Theater orchestra, Alberto Sordi took his first steps into the world of music. At the age of ten she became a soprano in the children’s choir of the Sistine Chapel and in 1936 she recorded a disc of musical fairy tales for children

Rome, Alberto Sordi’s villa will become a museum

3/27

Shortly thereafter, Sordi left Rome to enroll in the Drama Academy in Milan. His first appearance in the cinema, in 1937, is as an extra in “Scipione l’Africano” by Carmine Gallone. But the turning point is when he wins a competition organized by MGM to dub Oliver Hardy, the Hardy of the famous couple Laurel and Hardy

Alberto Sordi, 20 years after his death his most famous phrases from the movies

4/27

LaPresse

In the following years he also dubbed other Hollywood actors, including Robert Mitchum and Anthony Quinn. He also works in light theater and radio, where he begins to gain some notoriety

5/27

Web photo

The first important role, after a series of minor roles, is that of the “white sheikh” in the homonymous film by Federico Fellini (1952). The 1950s will mark a turning point for Sordi’s career: from “I vitelloni” of 1953, also by Fellini, to the character of Nando Moriconi in “Un giorno in pretura”, which given its success is re-proposed in the famous “Un American in Rome” of 1954

In “I vitelloni” Sordi is the protagonist of a cult scene where he “spernacchia” a group of workers

In “An American in Rome” Sordi perfectly interprets the Italian obsession with American myths and consigns some cult scenes to the history of cinema, such as that of the spaghetti eaten by Nando Moriconi. Gradually Sordi builds his reputation as the interpreter par excellence of the average Italian, between vices and merits

8/27

Web photo

“An American in Rome” gives the impetus to Sordi’s career, who gets to star in dozens of films in a few years, becoming more and more popular. The first works with directors such as Dino Risi, Mario Monicelli and Eduardo De Filippo arrive in the rest of the 1950s

1959 is another pivotal year. Sordi, in the company of Vittorio Gassman and Silvana Mangano, plays Oreste Jacovacci in Monicelli’s “The Great War”: an indolent soldier, destined however to die a hero. It is the first proof of Sordi’s versatility, also able to credibly handle dramatic roles

Also from 1959, Sordi starred in Dino Risi’s “The widower” together with an amazing Franca Valeri. In the film he is a man who puts on airs thanks to his wife’s money who ends up the victim of a train accident. He will later discover, however, that the woman did not get on the train in extremis, leaving him with a bitter surprise

The beginning of the 60s confirmed the great success of Alberto Sordi, giving Italian cinema other unforgettable characters. After the First World War in “The Great War”, in 1960 it was the turn of the Second World War, with the touching role of second lieutenant Innocenzi in “Tutti a casa” by Luigi Comencini. A fragile anti-hero destined to rebel

12/27

Also in 1960 another cult role: that of the inflexible and arrogant traffic policeman, but forced to give way in front of the powerful on duty, in “Il vigile” by Luigi Zampa

In 1961 Sordi returned to work with Dino Risi in the role of journalist Silvio Magnozzi in “Una vita difficile”. One of his most successful acting tests thanks also to the dramatic nuances of the role. Magnozzi is a former partisan who, after the war, finding himself penniless, seeks redemption in society by leaving aside the old ideals and becoming the assistant of a dishonest businessman

After the successful role of the big tooth Guglielmo in “I complex”, an episodic film signed by directors Dino Risi, Franco Rossi and Luigi Filippo D’Amico, in 1966 Sordi moved behind the camera and also made his directorial debut with ” Smoke of London”

In the following years, Sordi never stopped adding cult figures to his by now inimitable gallery of characters. In 1968 he was a young doctor willing to compromise to make a career, until he became chief physician in a luxury clinic, in Luigi Zampa’s memorable “Il medico della mutua”

The public will like the character so much that a sequel will be shot the following year (“Prof. Dr. Guido Tersilli head of the Villa Celeste clinic affiliated with mutual societies”, by Luciano Salce)

17/27

Web photo

Among the most successful characters of the 70s there is certainly the surveyor imprisoned for no reason while he is on vacation in “Prison awaiting trial” by Nanni Loy (1971), a role thanks to which Sordi wins the Bear of Silver at the Berlin Film Festival

Also memorable in 1972 is the character of the “borgataro” who once a year together with his wife (played by Silvana Mangano) finds himself organizing endless card games with a rich American lady and her driver in Luigi Scopone Comencini

19/27

Web photo

Monicelli’s “Un borghese piccolo piccolo” (1977) perhaps marks the apex of Alberto Sordi’s dramatic roles

Even if the film is not a pure drama but always plays between comedy and tragedy, the Roman actor is the perfect mask for the character of the employee who tries to recommend his son for a job in a ministry and after some vicissitudes devotes itself to a violent revenge

With the decline of the Italian comedy in the following years, the critical and public success of Sordi also declined. But in the 80s the “national Albertone” nevertheless placed other paws, as in the comedy “Il marchese del Grillo” by Mario Monicelli, from 1981, which culminates in the cult phrase “I know I and you are not a c ** *or”

Also from the 1980s is “Il taxinaro”, directed and interpreted by himself, the story of the bizarre encounters during the work shifts of the Roman taxi driver Pietro Marchetti. Giulio Andreotti and Federico Fellini appear in the film playing themselves

The 80s are also those of his collaboration with Carlo Verdone, considered by some – despite the differences in style and themes – to be his possible heir. From 1982 is “In viaggio con papa”, directed by Sordi himself, where the two play father and son, forced to spend a holiday together

In 1984 it was Verdone’s turn to direct, with “Troppo forte”, where the Roman comedian is an actor who is unable to give impetus to his career and is convinced by a lawyer (Sordi) to defraud the producer of a film that ‘he discarded

Among Sordi’s latest films, and one that the actor had particularly close to his heart, as he said in some interviews, is “Nestore, the last race” from 1994. In the film, Sordi plays a coachman who has not yet resigned to bringing his horse to slaughter

Deaf died in Rome on February 24, 2003. He bequeathed a gallery of unforgettable characters, always poised between laughter and tragedy, between cynicism and comedy. A career also marked by numerous awards, such as the special prize for interpretation in “The Great War” in Venice in 1959, a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, a Silver Bear in Berlin and 7 David di Donatello

The affection of the Italians has never been lacking for the Deaf, as evidenced by the 250,000 people who attended the funeral, celebrated in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome