# Carlo Verdone

Carlo Gregorio Verdone (born 17 November 1950) is an Italian actor, screenwriter and film director.
Verdone is best known for his comedic roles in Italian classics, which he also wrote and directed. His career was jumpstarted by his first three successes, Fun Is Beautiful (1980), Bianco, rosso e Verdone (1981) and Talcum Powder (1982). Since the 1990s, he has been introducing more serious subjects in his work, linked to the excesses of society and the individual's hardships in confronting it; some examples are Damned the Day I Met You (1992), My Best Enemy (2006) and Me, Them and Lara (2010).

## Early life

Carlo Verdone was born in Rome to Mario Verdone, an important Italian film critic and academic, and studied at the Italian Liceo classico in Rome, having the future actor Christian De Sica as his deskmate. Subsequently, Verdone earned a degree in Modern Literature at Sapienza University of Rome, the same university where his father taught, and a degree in Film Direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. During the 1970s he started a television career highlighting his varied comic style, acting as well in some ads in the Carosello show and he started to introduce his characters on television in 1978 in the popular comedy series "Non Stop".

## Movie career

Verdone made his debut as a director in 1980 with the movie Fun Is Beautiful, in which he played three different characters. He used the same formula of the first work in 1981, when he directed Bianco, rosso e Verdone, a movie about three different men during election day in Italy. The movie, produced by his mentor Sergio Leone, was very successful in Italy and had a soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone.
He and Alberto Sordi wrote two Verdone films together: Journey with Papà, directed by Sordi, and Troppo forte, directed by Verdone and co-written as well by Sergio Leone.
In 1999 he wrote the book "Fatti Coatti". In 2005 he took part in the Italian blockbuster romantic comedy named Manual of Love, and in the sequels named Manual of Love 2 (2007) and The Ages of Love (2011), both directed by Giovanni Veronesi, while in 2013 he starred in Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty. In 2018 he directed Blessed Madness, which he co-wrote with Nicola Guaglianone and the cartoonist and screenwriter Menotti.

## Personal life

He has two siblings: Luca, a film director, and Silvia, a film producer and wife of the actor Christian De Sica.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Actor | Director | Writer | Role |
| 1979 | La Luna | Yes | | | 'Caracalla' Director |
| 1980 | Fun Is Beautiful | Yes | Yes | Yes | Enzo / Ruggero / Leo / Don Alfio / Anselmo / professor |
| 1981 | Bianco, rosso e Verdone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Furio / Mimmo / Pasquale |
| 1982 | Journey with Papa | Yes | No | Yes | Cristiano D'Ambrosi |
| 1982 | Grand Hotel Excelsior | Yes | No | No | Pericle Coccia |
| 1982 | Talcum Powder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Sergio Benvenuti |
| 1983 | Acqua e sapone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Rolando Ferrazza |
| 1984 | I due carabinieri | Yes | Yes | Yes | Marino Spada |
| 1984 | Cuori nella tormenta | Yes | No | Yes | Walter Migliorini |
| 1986 | 7 chili in 7 giorni | Yes | No | No | Alfio Tamburini |
| 1986 | Troppo forte | Yes | Yes | Yes | Oscar Pettinari |
| 1987 | Io e mia sorella | Yes | Yes | Yes | Carlo Piergentili |
| 1988 | Compagni di scuola | Yes | Yes | Yes | Piero Ruffolo |
| 1989 | Il bambino e il poliziotto | Yes | Yes | Yes | Carlo Vinciguerra |
| 1990 | Stasera a casa di Alice | Yes | Yes | Yes | Saverio |
| 1991 | Damned the Day I Met You | Yes | Yes | Yes | Bernardo Arbusti |
| 1992 | Al lupo al lupo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Gregorio Sagonà |
| 1994 | Let's Not Keep in Touch | Yes | Yes | Yes | Gepy Fuxas |
| 1995 | Viaggi di nozze | Yes | Yes | Yes | Raniero / Giovannino / Ivano |
| 1996 | I'm Crazy About Iris Blond | Yes | Yes | Yes | Romeo Spera |
| 1998 | Gallo cedrone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Armando Feroci |
| 1998 | Lucky and Zorba | Yes | No | No | Zorba (voice) |
| 2000 | Zora the Vampire | Yes | No | No | Commissioner Lombardi |
| 2000 | A Chinese in a Coma | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ercole Preziosi |
| 2003 | It Can't Be All Our Fault | Yes | Yes | Yes | Gegè Tinacci |
| 2004 | Love Is Eternal While It Lasts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Gilberto Mercuri |
| 2005 | Manual of Love | Yes | No | No | Goffredo |
| 2006 | My Best Enemy | Yes | Yes | Yes | Achille De Bellis |
| 2007 | Manual of Love 2 | Yes | No | No | Ernesto |
| 2008 | Grande, grosso e... Verdone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Leo Nuvolone / Callisto Cagnato / Moreno Vecchiarutti / L'onorevole |
| 2009 | Italians | Yes | No | No | Giulio Cesare Carminati |
| 2010 | Me, Them and Lara | Yes | Yes | Yes | Carlo Mascolo |
| 2011 | The Ages of Love | Yes | No | No | Fabio |
| 2012 | A Flat for Three | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ulisse Diamanti |
| 2013 | The Great Beauty | Yes | No | No | Romano |
| 2014 | Sotto una buona stella | Yes | Yes | Yes | Federico Picchioni |
| 2016 | The Big Score | Yes | Yes | Yes | Arturo Merlino |
| 2018 | Blessed Madness | Yes | Yes | Yes | Guglielmo Pantalei |
| 2021 | Si vive una volta sola | Yes | Yes | Yes | Umberto Gastaldi |
| 2021 | Vita da Carlo (TV Series) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Carlo |