RIP Paolo Ferrari

Paolo Ferrari has died: a great actor in theater, cinema and television

May 6, 2018

Paolo Ferrari, a great actor in theater, cinema and television, has died in Rome. He had worked with directors such as Blasetti, Zeffirelli and Petri. He was also a famous voice actor.

Born in Brussels, where his father was a consul, on February 26, 1929, Ferrari was married twice. A first marriage with Marina Bonfigli and later with Laura Tavanti, both were his companions on the silver screen. He has three sons, Fabio and Daniele from his first wife, and Stefano, son of Tavanti.

Paolo Ferrari was a very famous face on black and white TV. The general public remembers him especially for such TV series as "Nero Wolfe" and for the commercials of a detergent ("Madam wants to change his Dash's tin with two of another brand?") Entered the history of Carosello.

Ferrari was also an excellent voice actor. He had left the radio, just 9 years old, with a program in which he played Paolo. In the same year he made his debut at the cinema in "Ettore Fieramosca" directed by Alessandro Blasetti. Other films followed, including "Gian Burrasca" in 1943, up to the tragedy of his eldest brother, Leopoldo, executed by the partisans after he refused to take off the fascist uniform.

After the war he returned to the cinema with "Fabiola" in 1949 directed by Alessandro Blasetti and "Una lettera alba" by Giorgio Bianchi. Then come radio and television. With Nino Manfredi and Gianni Bonagura in 1955, Ferrari participated in the radio variety show "Rosso e nero n 2" while he began his career as a voice actor and would make it one of the most famous and beautiful voices in Italian cinema. Among the many Hollywood actors dubbed there was also Humphrey Bogart. Eclectic and brilliant, he interprets films of every kind, from "Toto 'cerca pace" by Mario Mattoli (1954) to "Il conte Aquila", from "Susanna tutta Panna" by Steno (1957) to "Camping" by Franco Zeffirelli (1958) ); Adorabili and bugiarde, directed by Nunzio Malasomma (1958).

His first TV success was in 1959 with his wife Marina Bonfigli in the program "Il Mattatore", with Vittorio Gassman. Mel 1960 leads the Sanremo Festival together with Enza Sampò and in the 1960s the cinema continues, with at least a dozen films including "The Shortest Day" by Sergio Corbucci (1962) and "Le voci bianche" by Pasquale Festa Campanile (1964). In the seventies, on the small screen, the screenplay and mini-series went crazy: Ferrari plays in "Nero Wolfe" with Tino Buazzelli (as Archie Goodwin, the diligent assistant investigator) and in "Accadde in Lisbon" alongside Paolo Stoppa. The advertising-smashing of the Dash that "does not change" makes him universally known but at the same time marks his decline on TV. He returns only in 1997 when he plays a pensioner in the series in 40 episodes of "Disokkupati". After 2000, in addition to the theater, he is called on for many TV dramas: he is the Marquis Giuseppe Obrifari in the series "Orgoglio", then recites in "Incantesimo" 9 and 10 where he recites alongside Delia Boccardo.

In 2008 he received the Gassman Award for his career and in January 2013 announced his retirement from the scene. In recent years he had retired to the Roman countryside and was returned only rarely to Rome, mostly to go and see his Lazio.

Born:2/26/1929, Brussels, Belgium

Died: 5/6/2018, Rome, Lazio, Italy

A Coffin for the Sheriff  - 1965 [Italian voice of Anthony Steffen]
Raise Your Hands Dead Man, You're Under Arrest - 1972 [Italian voice of Espartaco Santoni]
It Can Be Done Amigo – 1972 [Italian voice of Francisco Rabal]

Another Try, Eh Providence? – 1973 (rifle salesman)
Zorro - 1975 [Italian voice of Stanley Baker]