Riccardo Billi

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Riccardo Billi (born April 22, 1906 in Siena , † April 15, 1982 in Rome ) was an Italian actor on the stage (often with Mario Riva ) and in numerous films.

Life

Billi gained his first stage experience since 1926 as a conferencier and impersonator on Avanspettacolo stages such as the Roman "Casina delle Rose". For the first time in an ensemble he played with Lydia Johnson until 1931, where he took a big step forward and found his style of humor, which he spiced up with his Tuscan dialect. An engagement at the "Compagnia Maresca", where he first met Wanda Osiris , followed. In the season 1937/1937 he was in the play Sleeping Beauty alongside Pina Renzi and Vincenzo Scarpetta . Afterwards he was active again for a few months for an Avanspettacolo when he caused the audience to laugh at the Trianon in Milan alongside Clely Fiamma with impetuous clowning. After appearances - already during wartime - in the revue-related performance Ore 9, lezione di musica , two pieces followed in which he appeared again with Fiamma (and Renato Romigioli ): Comici in vacanza and Due colpi da pistola . Chi vuol esser lieto sia was the last piece Billi interpreted during the war; he played alongside Carlo Campanini and Aldo Fabrizi .

Billi seamlessly continued his previous successes in the now liberated city of Rome: Un'ora di felicità hit the mood of the time as did Roma città chiusa in 1945 , in which a number of well-known actors incorporated and presented their war experiences at the “Teatro Adriano” . At this time Billi also began a radio show, which eventually aired for five years, in which he played plays and skits with his new artistic partner Mario Riva . Also at the theater the partnership was an immediate success: Your parodies of Anna Magnani (Billi) and Roberto Rossellini (Riva), the Settecolli of Alfredo Polacci shaped, set new standards. This was followed by work with the author duo Garinei and Giovannini , who brought La bisarca to the stage in 1950 after their radio piece , in which ballerina Alba Arnova and choreographer Gisa Geert were also involved. Other successful titles were Caccia al tesore (1953/1954) and La granduchessa ei camerieri two years later. In the former, Billi and Riva played alongside Gianni Agus and Lucy D'Albert , in the other with Wanda Osiris. The fictional characters Pecos-Billi and Old Man-Riva, which were also extremely successful during this period, testified to a never-ending wealth of ingenuity.

The 1954/1955 season was the high point of their stage career: in Siamo tutti dottori , Billi and Riva found a piece in which they perfected their collaboration and which achieved unprecedented success. With the sketch sequence Gli italiani son fatti so there is a successor to the economic boom in post-war Italy , which could not quite follow on from the predecessor. After a long time without Riva, but with Mara Berni and Quartetto Cetra , Billi e pupe , performed in the 1957/1958 season, became unaccustomedly critical . With Soppio rosa ... al sex both tried again together with Wanda Osiris; the decline of the successful collaboration could no longer be stopped. Garinei and Giovannini cast Billi alongside Walter Chiari and not alongside Riva in their great musical comedy Un mandarino per Teo , which was first performed in the 1960/1961 season. After the death of his former stage partner Riva, Billi also withdrew from the previous form of theater and revue appearances and devoted himself solely to filming, radio work and, between 1968 and 1975, children's theater, for which he brought fairy tale and oriental subjects to the stage.

Billi was portrayed as a personable and communicative character who never had the opportunity in his film career to appropriately use the great skills he had acquired on the stage. Together with Mario Riva, he had found better material in only two works: Luigi Zampa offered the opportunity in Anni facili 1953, as did Alberto Lattuada (even more clearly) in Meine Lausejungs , which was created one year later, and which allowed dignified and dignified interpretations of humanity. In contrast, almost all of Billi's other films are cheap comedies or only contain batch roles for him.

The producer of several Italian genre films of the 1970s and husband of Malisa Longo is a namesake.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1938: L'ha fatto una signora
  • 1940: Poverty and Nobility (Miseria e nobiltà)
  • 1947: The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio)
  • 1950: I was a sinner (Ho sognato il paradiso)
  • 1952: The great Juxbaron (47 morto che parla)
  • 1954: My lousy boys (Scuola elementare)
  • 1955: A house full of innocent lambs (Accadde al penitenziario)
  • 1956: The most beautiful days in life (I giorni più belli)
  • 1960: The secret of the red mask (Terrore della maschera rossa)
  • 1962: The Magnificent Seven (Le magnifiche sette)
  • 1963: The Pink Panther (The Pink Panther)
  • 1967: One lives better immorally (L'immorale)
  • 1968: The Girl Who Couldn't Say No (Tenderly)
  • 1970: The clowns (I clowns)
  • 1978: A sack full of fleas (Primo amore)
  • 1981: The maddened pranks of the Marchese del Grillo (Il marchese del Grillo)
  • 1981: The completely crazy classroom (Pierino contro tutti)
  • 1981: Two dead pants cream off (Uno contro l'altro, praticamente amici)
production

literature

  • Massimo Giraldi, Enrico Lancia, Fabio Melelli: 100 caratteristi del cinema italiano . Rome 2006, pp. 29-31

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.italica.rai.it/scheda.php?scheda=quartetto_cetra  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.italica.rai.it  
  2. ^ Enrico Lancia, article Riccardo Billi , in: Dizionario del cinema italiano. Gli attori. Rome 1998, pp. 61/62
personal data
SURNAME Billi, Riccardo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Siena
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1982
Place of death Rome