Totò
Actor, Musical Artist
1898 – 1967
Who was Totò?
Prince Antonio Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno De Curtis di Bisanzio Gagliardi, best known by his stage name Totò or as Antonio De Curtis, and nicknamed il principe della risata, was an Italian comedian, film and theatre actor, writer, singer and songwriter. He is widely considered one of the greatest Italian artists of the 20th century. While he first gained his popularity as a comic actor, his dramatic roles, his poetry, and his songs are all deemed to be outstanding; his style and a number of his recurring jokes and gestures have become universally known memes in Italy. Writer and philosopher Umberto Eco has thus commented on the importance of Totò in Italian culture:
In this globalized universe where it seems that everybody's watching the same movies and eating the same food, there are still abysmal and overwhelming fractures separating one culture from another. How can two peoples, one of which unknowing of Totò, truly understand each other?
Mario Monicelli, who directed some of the most appreciated of Totò's movies, thus described his artistic value:
With Totò, we got it all wrong. He was a genius, not just a grandiose actor. And we constrained him, reduced him, forced him into a common human being, and thus clipped his wings.
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- Born
- Feb 15, 1898
Rione Sanità - Also known as
- Toto
- Antonio De Curtis
- Antonio Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno De Curtis Di Bisanzio Gagliardi
- Il Principe
- Il Principe della Risata
- Antonio Clemente
- Antonio Vincenzo Stefano Clemente
- Prince Antonio Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno De Curtis di Bisanzio Gagliardi
- Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Ducas Komnenos Gagliardi de Curtis of Byzantium, His Imperial Highness, Palatine Count, Knight of the Holy Roman Empire, Exarch of Ravenna, Duke of Macedonia and Illyria, Prince of Constantinople, Cilicia, Thessaly, Pontus, Moldavia, Dardania, Peloponnesus, Count of Cyprus and Epirus, Count and Duke of Drivasto and Durazzo
- Clerment
- Parents
- Spouses
- Diana Bandini Rogliani
(1935/03/06 - 1939) - Franca Faldini
(1954 - 1967/04/15) - Liliana Castagnola
(1929 - 1930)
- Diana Bandini Rogliani
- Children
- Ethnicity
- Italian people
- Nationality
- Italy
- Kingdom of Italy
- Profession
- Died
- Apr 15, 1967
Rome
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Totò." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/antonio_de_curtis>.
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