Abatantuono, Diego

(1955-)

   Actor. One of the new generation of young actors to emerge in the late 1970s, Abatantuono came to films and television after having been immersed from an early age in Milanese cabaret culture. He became particularly well known for his impersonation on stage of an ebullient wild-haired young lout (a so-called terrunciello or country boy) with lots of attitude and an incomprehensible speech that jumbled together the dialects of Lombardy and Puglia. The character's notoriety led to small roles in satirical films such as Fantozzi contro tutti (Fantozzi against the Wind, 1980), directed by Neri Parenti, and Renzo Arbore's II pap'occhio (The Pope's Eye, 1980). After starring in a number of extremely popular low-grade farces, films commonly referred to as "demented comedies" or "cinema trash," Abatantuono abandoned the screen for a period in order to work in theater again, attracting much praise for his interpretation of Sganarelle in a production of Moliere's Don Giovanni. He returned to the cinema in 1986 working with Pupi Avati in Regalo di Natale (Christmas Present, 1986) and in Giuseppe Bertolucci's Strana la vita (The Strangeness of Life, 1987) although he scored his greatest successes with roles in a handful of films directed by Gabriele Salvatores, in particular Marrakech Express (1989), Turne (1990), and the Oscar-winning Mediterraneo (1991). With an obvious propensity for comedy, he has also continued to prove himself in more dramatic roles in Carlo Mazzacurati's Il toro (The Bull, 1994), Ettore Scola's Concorrenza sleale (Unfair Competition, 2001), and Avati's more recent La rivincita di Natale (Christmas Rematch, 2004).