Renato Rascel
Renato Rascel (stage name of Renato Ranucci; 27 April 1912 – 2 January 1991), was an Italian film actor and singer. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972. He represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 with the song "Romantica" which was placed equal eighth out of thirteen entries.
He was born to Cesare and Paola Ranucci in Turin. It was in Turin where his parents, who were opera singers, were performing a show at the time Renato could really say that he was born in the back stage of the theater and that's where he spent all of his life. His father tried to make it up to him by having him baptized at Saint Peter's in Rome and apparently it worked because growing up in that neighborhood he ended up singing for the "white voices choir" of Saint Peter with the leadership of composer-conductor Lorenzo Perosi.
At the age of 14 Renato started to play drums in ballrooms around Rome. Soon after, he joined the Di Fiorenza Sisters as an actor, dancer and clown and in 1934 he was hired for his first big role by the Schwarts Brothers in the operetta "Al Cavallino bianco". In 1935, he joined Elena Gray for his first foreign tour in Africa.
In 1941 he created his own theater company and he began to develop his distinctive kind of humor that in the following years will crown him as the inventor of the "non-sense" with phrases like "two friends that didn't know each other". He decided to make his small size work for him, being only 5'2" tall, one of his major assets becoming known as the "Tiny Italian" (il piccoletto nazionale) and in his show he accentuated his stature by wearing huge extravagant coats, his most famous one had a large pocket on the back.
In this time he created some of his most famous characters such as "Napoleon" and "Il Corazziere" (a parody on his size since the Corazziere is a military division that employs only soldiers over 6 feet tall) that brought him to an extraordinary popularity in Italy. In 1942 he shot the first of a long series of films, Pazzo d'amore (Crazy For Love) developing and establishing his very peculiar kind of humor. Among the sixty plus films he worked in, one of the most relevant was Il Cappotto (The Overcoat) by Gogol, winner of the Golden Palm in Cannes.
He also had a leading role in The Secret of Santa Vittoria with Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani, Seven Hills of Rome with Mario Lanza, Questi fantasmi with Eduardo De Filippo and Figaro qua Figaro là with Totò. In 1977, he appeared in the Zeffirelli film Jesus of Nazareth as the blind man.
His post second World War success is due mainly to his leading roles in the musicals by Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini. The artistic trio is responsible for the existence of the "musical" in Italy with Attanasio cavallo vanesio in 1952 (featuring the American trio Peters Sisters, Alvaro piuttosto corsaro (1953), Tobia la candida spia (1955), Un paio d'ali (1957), Rascelinaria (1958), Enrico '61 (1961), and also performed for an entire year in London at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1962, along with Il giorno della tartaruga (1965) and Alleluja, brava gente (1970). ...
Source: Article "Renato Rascel" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 3.079 |
Birthday | 1912-04-27 |
Place of Birth | Turin, Piedmont, Italy |
Also Known As | Renato Ranucci, |
1957
Oh! Sabella
7.1/31
Raffaele, a Neapolitan student, get the news that his beloved grandmother Sabella is dying. He immediately goes to Pollena to be beside her.
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Oh! Sabella
1959
Policarpo, ufficiale di scrittura
7.292/12
Policarpo De Tappetti is a calligrapher who works under the orders of Don César Pancarano de Rondò. For many years, Policarpo has been seeking a promo...
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Policarpo, ufficiale di scrittura
1954
Gran varietà
6.1/4
A musical comedy divided into five segments: Mariantonia, Cuttica, Il Fine Dicitore, Fregoli and Il Censore.
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Gran varietà
1952
The Overcoat
6.789/19
Based on the Nikolai Gogol story but set in 1950s Italy, "The Overcoat" is the story of a poor city hall clerk whose only desire is to buy a new overc...
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The Overcoat
1959
Ferdinand I King of Naples
6.8/22
The story of "King Lazzarone" Ferdinand I of Bourbon whose pastime was to neglect the government and disguise himself as a poor man and turn to the in...
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Ferdinand I King of Naples
1957
Seven Hills of Rome
5.9/6
After having a fight with his girl friend, Marc follows her to Rome to try and win her back. On the train he meets a girl who is on her way to stay wi...
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Seven Hills of Rome
1961
The Last Judgment
6.3/32
The Last Judgement (Italian: Il giudizio universale) is a 1961 commedia all'italiana film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It was coproduced with...
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The Last Judgment
1954
Alvaro piuttosto corsaro
0/0
Alvaro hunts for a treasure, of which he owns only half the map.
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Alvaro piuttosto corsaro
1956
The Monte Carlo Story
5.6/8
Stylish, sophisticated and absolutely broke, Dino and Maria pursue a romance until they realize neither of them has any money, which forces the gold d...
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The Monte Carlo Story
1950
Figaro qua... Figaro là
5.9/15
In the 18th century, Figaro the Sevillian barber is likely to be arrested because he operates his shop on Sundays, which is forbidden.
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Figaro qua... Figaro là
1959
Uncle Was A Vampire
5.6/10
Baron Osvaldo Lambertenghi is forced to sell his ancestral castle, staying on as a bellboy when it's converted into a hotel. However he becomes vampir...
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Uncle Was A Vampire
1975
Un sorriso, uno schiaffo, un bacio in bocca
4.8/5
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Un sorriso, uno schiaffo, un bacio in bocca
1953
Attanasio cavallo vanesio
6/1
A jockey buys his favorite horse.
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Attanasio cavallo vanesio
1953
La passeggiata
0/0
A meek and simple-minded boarding school teacher falls in love with a prostitute and gets the boot from school. He tries to have her change her way of...
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La passeggiata
1961
Destination Fury
0/0
Lemmy Caution has been assigned by Interpol to work as a double agent. Little does he know how many spies are on to this deception and how dangerous...
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Destination Fury
1951
Beauties on bicycles
6/3
Two chorus girls leave Milan to get to the famous Totò's theatre company. Unfortunately the bus they are on breaks down and they ask for a lift, but t...
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Beauties on bicycles
1970
Transplant
5.5/1
To satisfy his wife, an elderly man has to have a penis transplant and is willing to pay a lot to do so. Three men are selected who for different reas...
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Transplant
1960
The Bear
6/2
A mild-mannered zookeeper has to contend with his tyrannical boss and a talking lovesick bear.
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The Bear
1952
Il bandolero stanco
5.5/2
A comedy centered on the character of Pepito. It is an Italian western made before the Spaghetti western era and it is at the same time a parody of th...
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Il bandolero stanco
1949
Maracatumba... ma non è una rumba!
0/0
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Maracatumba... ma non è una rumba!
1961
The Orderly
6/1
Colonels, majors, lieutenants: all of them live in the same building. Some of them have a wife or children or none, but everyone has his orderly. Majo...
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The Orderly
1960
Il corazziere
0/0
In fascist Italy, Urbano Marangoni aspires to become Corazziere, like his late father, but it is a dream destined not to come true because of his shor...
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Il corazziere
1961
Enrico '61
0/0
Italian comedy teleplay.
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Enrico '61
1960
Little Girls and High Finance
7/1
A low level official and a prostitute both try to commit suicide and fail, afterwards he becomes a pimp and the prostitutes take over the country.
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Little Girls and High Finance
1960
Un militare e mezzo
7/3
Nicola Carletti is a middle age 50-year old man who return to Italy with his family but he is drafted to go to the mandatory military service in Italy...
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Un militare e mezzo
1954
Il matrimonio
6.5/4
An Italian historical comedy film consisting of three segments, based on three stage plays by Anton Chekhov.
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Il matrimonio
1951
Io sono il capataz
7/1
The young Uguccione is mistaken for Rascelito Villa called "C6", a dangerous revolutionary, and then immediately sent to Parazuela where he leads the...
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Io sono il capataz
1970
The Secret of Santa Vittoria
6.849/53
During World War II, Italian villagers hide their wine from the German army.
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The Secret of Santa Vittoria
1953
Ho scelto l'amore
7.5/1
A satire of the Cold War, Italian style. Soviet flunkey Boris Popovitc is sent on a goodwill mission to Rome, where he is to deliver a symbolic dove o...
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Ho scelto l'amore
1954
Rosso e nero
0/0
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Rosso e nero
1951
Napoleone
0/0
A historical farce about Napoleon.
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Napoleone
1967
Delirio a due
5/1
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Delirio a due
1957
Rascel-Fifì
0/0
Renato and Gedeon have just opened a nightclub in a disreputable area of New York, triggering the hostility of Gionata, a gang leader and owner of the...
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Rascel-Fifì
1958
Move and I'll Shoot
7/2
Renato Tuzzi, a primary school teacher, is a shy man, unable to be respected by the turbulent kids.
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Move and I'll Shoot
1958
Rascel Marine
0/0
During WW2 a platoon of marines fights the Japanese on a little island in the Pacific Ocean. On the island there is a hut where old Taikiki lives with...
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Rascel Marine
1952
L'eroe sono io
0/0
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L'eroe sono io
1951
Love I Haven't... But... But
6.2/2
Gina tries to commit suicide by jumping into the river but is saved by Teodoro, an innocent young man. Antonio, Teodoro's brother, tries in every way...
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Love I Haven't... But... But
1970
I racconti di Padre Brown
0/0
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I racconti di Padre Brown
1952
Half a Century of Song
0/0
Through a series of scenes inspired by famous songs, various episodes of Italian life in the last fifty years are recalled.
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Half a Century of Song
1956
I pinguini ci guardano
6.5/2
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I pinguini ci guardano
1963
Follie d'estate
0/0
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Follie d'estate
1954
These Phantoms
0/0
A young husband is persuaded to move his new bride into an old palace that is supposedly haunted.But the so called ghost is really the bride's former...
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These Phantoms
1953
Piovuto dal cielo
0/0
A pickpoket falls in love with one of his victims.
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Piovuto dal cielo
1942
Pazzo d'amore
0/0
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Pazzo d'amore
1962
Questi fantasmi
8.2/4
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Questi fantasmi
1972
Pinocchio
7.6/7
The film was directed by Giuliano Cenci with assistance from his brother Renzo. During production, Carlo Collodis grandchildren Mario and Antonio Lore...
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Pinocchio
1954
Io sono la Primula Rossa
0/0
Comedy with Renato Rascel
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Io sono la Primula Rossa
1950
I'm in the Revue
4.6/7
Good-natured and devout, a French house painter takes the train to Rome, where he has decided to go on a pilgrimage. There he meets a scatterbrained d...
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I'm in the Revue
1955
Variety carousel
6/2
A painter gives his daughter a television set for her 18th birthday. On the evening of the party, the family sits in the living room and watches a ser...
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