(by Giorgio Gosetti) (ANSA) - ROME, OCTOBER 25 - On the night of October 27, 30 years ago, surprised in his sleep by a cerebral hemorrhage, Ugo Tognazzi, the unforgettable "colonel" of the Italian comedy, left just 68 years old.
Tognazzi was born in Cremona on 23 March 1922. The family is anything but rich and when Ugo finishes school it is already time to find a job.
They hire him in a delicatessen but he retains his place mainly thanks to the amateur dramatics he plays at the after-work.
When the war is over, he arrives in Milan and is kissed by good luck because he is noticed by Wanda Osiris.
In 1950 he went down to Rome on the Via di Cinecittà.
The first role on the screen is entrusted to him by Mario Mattoli in "the cadets of Gascony" of 1950 alongside Walter Chiari.
The following year he meets Raimondo Vianello instead and the two will make a steady couple for all of the 1950s, reaching triumphal success above all with the television variety «Un, due, tre».
In 1959, due to a satirical scene about the President of the Republic Gronchi, the program was closed without warning and the two were fired by Rai.
But ilcinema has now adopted that Lombard who churns out films in bursts (12 in 1959 alone).
Luciano Salce realizes this and affirms with him thanks to "Il federal" (1961).
Dino Risiche realizes this and repeats his success with "The march on Rome" of '62.
Ugo Tognazzi's career from that moment is a constant ascent.
Masterpieces such as "The monkey woman", "The hearing", "The big binge" are born.
For Monicelli he will give life to the saga of "My friends".
With Risi and Scola he will make a profound odal.
An insatiable vitalism pushes Tognazzi to avoid the schemes and "parishes" of Italian cinema: he crosses Elio Petri and Bernardo Bertolucci ("The tragedy of a ridiculous man" with whom he won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1981); he supports the beginnings of Pupi Avati and disguises himself as a gay for Edouard Molinaro in "Il vizietto" which at the end of the 70s relaunches him in the world.
He continues to keep a hellish pace of work (at least two films a year) but since the mid-1980s he returns more and more frequently to the theater, spends a lot of time in Paris, is surprised by the most treacherous and cruel disease: depression.
(HANDLE).