Actor, writer and director Paolo
Villaggio, one of the greats of Italian comedy, has died at a
Rome clinic at the age of 84.
"By Dad, now you are free to fly," Villaggio's daughter
Elisabetta said in her Facebook page on Monday.
Villaggio is best known for the character of bumbling
bookkeeper Ugo Fantozzi, who he played in a series of movies
that produced some of Italian cinema's most memorable moments.
These included Fantozzi declaring that Battleship Kotiomkin,
a parody of Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, was a
"cagata pazzesca" - "an incredible piece of crap" - in The
Second Tragic Fantozzi.
"I recall Paolo Villaggio," Premier Paolo Gentiloni said via
Twitter.
"Extraordinary comic talent who taught generations of
Italians to recognize their mannerisms".
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