Biography for
Roberto Benigni

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After his movie Vita è bella, La (1997) received seven Academy Award nominations, he met the Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and said, after shaking his hand: "Now I have the Oscar in my hand!".

When the Ulivo party won the parliamentary elections, Benigni jumped on the stage and kissed Walter Veltroni, one of the party's candidates.

His father Luigi Benigni (1918-2004), who worked as a farmer, carpenter and bricklayer, was a prisoner in the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen between 1943 and 1945. Roberto used his stories as the basis for his film Vita è bella, La (1997).

His mother Isolina Papini (1918-2004) worked as a fabric inspector.

Sister: Bruna Benigni (textile worker), born 1945.

Sister: Albertina Benigni (flower shop owner), born 1947.

Sister: Anna Benigni (teacher's aide), born 1948.

Attended a seminary in Florence, planning to become a priest.

Left the seminary after two-thirds of Florence had been flooded by the Arno River (4 November 1966).

Graduated from Instituto Tecnico Commericale Datini di Prato.

He and Laurence Olivier are the only two actors to have directed themselves in Oscar winning performances.

The first actor to win a Best Actor Oscar for a non-English speaking role.

He is the sixth actor in history to win the Oscar for Best Actor in a comedy after Clark Gable in It Happened One Night (1934), James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940), Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou (1965),Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl (1977) and Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets (1997).

Benigni met wife Nicoletta Braschi on the set of Tu mi turbi (1983).

The first actor to win a Worst Actor Razzie for a non-English speaking role.

He joins Sylvester Stallone, Prince, Kevin Costner, William Shatner, and Tom Green as being the only actors to direct themselves in performances that would "win" them a Razzie Award for Worst Actor.

When he "won" the 2003 Razzie Award for Worst Actor in Pinocchio (2002), Razzies.com declared his win "By a Nose!", as he'd just barely beaten fellow nominee Steven Seagal in the film Half Past Dead (2002) by a mere few votes.

Federico Fellini considered him a genius

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival 1990

Has his look-alike puppet in the French show "Guignols de l'info, Les" (1988).

Was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (2 February 2007).

Candidate to be awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature for his explanation and recitations of Dante's "Divina Commedia" (2007).

Winning the Best Foreign Language Film category at the The 70th Annual Academy Awards (1998) (TV), he famously climbed on the back of the seat for his procession to the stage and applauded the audience. The following year, while announcing the nominees for the Best Actress Award, Billy Crystal appeared behind him with a large net to restrain him.

Also a respected poet, known for his poesia estemporanea, and singer-songwriter.

After leading a crowd of thousand in Rome, protesting against Silvio Berlusconi's government's decision to cut state arts funding by 35 percent, he hijacked the opening credits of Italy's most watched news show, removed his shirt to drape it over the anchorman's shoulders and announced "Berlusconi had resigned!" the next day (15 September 2005).

Was a supporter of the Italian Communist Party (PCI).

Is one of five performers to win an Oscar playing a character that spoke mostly in a foreign language. The other are Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Marion Cotillard and Benicio Del Toro.

Personal Quotes

[on winning the Best Actor Academy Award for Vita è bella, La (1997) after already accepting the Best Foreign Language Film award as its director] "Thank you. This is a terrible mistake, because I used up all my English!"

"Charlie Chaplin used his ass better than any other actor. In all his films his ass is practically the protagonist. For a comic, the ass has incredible importance."

"I'm so happy that every organ in my body is moving in a very bad way." - said backstage at the Oscars after he won the Best Actor category.

Where Are They Now

(1997) Works in theater and prepares performances on stage.

(2007) Doing a one man show based on the Italian poet Dante Alighieri throughout Europe

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