Gigi Proietti

Gigi Proietti was born in Rome, in a street off Via Giulia called “Via di S. Eligio”, few meters away from the birthplace of Ettore Petrolini. Young Gigi did not stay long in the luxury of one of Rome’s most beautiful streets, as his family moved to the Tufello area, a working-class suburb where he learned to live with the beauty and the ugly side of hamlet life, which has remained in his heart forever. As he would put it, he “grew with urban speculation”, as he migrated to all corners of “the eternal city”, with his family first, and on his own later on.  After completing secondary school focusing on humanities, he skipped the mandatory military service thanks to the surplus headcount in the military complement at the time, although several years later he joined the Carabinieri military police in which he served for seven years. To satisfy his father’s desire, he enrolled in the university at the faculty of Law, although he unenthusiastically and inconstantly attended classes, also due to the fact that he had already started playing music in cafes and restaurants - such as Pichetti’s and Gran Caffè Professionisti-, as well as in a very peculiar place located on Via 21 Aprile, whose name would change every year (Ar 21 Aprile, Golden Spider Garden, Er Nilo, etc.). Not long afterwards, he stepped up in class to performing in nightclubs such as Le Grotte del Piccione and Piero Gabrielli’s Brigadoon. One day, at Foro Olimpico, while he was dancing a Hully Gully, he met the love of his life, Sagitta Alter, a 16-year old girl from Sweden who was working as a tour guide. They dated, broke up, met again and decided to be together forever. And they are still together to this day.  In the early seventies, world-renowned Italian artist Domenico Modugno backed out from performing on Alleluja Brava Gente which he himself had written together with Rascel, Garinei and Giovannini; not knowing how to replace Modugno, the directors of the musical comedy went to L’Aquila to hire a young actor who was told to be able to recite, sing and play the guitar, who at the time was interpreting a character in Gombrowicz’s Operetta. Since then, Proietti was involved in many projects in various sectors of the show business: he would play the guitar for Mario Scaccia on a TV show titled Chitarra amore mio; he would interpret Alfred Jingle in Gregoretti’s Circolo Pickwick, and Don Chisciotte in Conoscete Don Chisciotte. He also started to work in the world of cinema, where his first leading role was in Tinto Brass’s L’Urlo. Then, on December 7, 1976, he hit the big time: A me gli occhi, please. He inaugurated a new way of acting, basically linked to the actor’s memory, staging the actor’s mystification in a period where the show director had the primary function in the theatre, wittingly conveying some features of the avant-garde drama into light comedy, and putting his great political commitment into his acting. Last but not least, the tickets for his shows were generally available a cheap prices. Later on he began to run the Brancaccio theatre, where he created a Stage Rehearsal Studio, from which an entire generation of artists emerged. To mention a few of them, Massimo Wertmüller, Pino Quartullo, Rodolfo Laganà, Gianfranco Iannuzzo, Francesca Reggiani, Gabriele Cirilli, Enrico Brignano, and plenty of others. Proietti put into music Gigi Magni’ lyrics for the songs featured on La commedia di Ghetanaccio, creating some of the best songs that he ever wrote, including the famous Ballata di Pickwick - end theme of the show -,  and Canzone della chioccia - which he wrote for his friend Gassman for the movie Di padre in figlio. With regard to TV, he acted in numerous and prestigious series such as Fregoli, Attore amore mio, and Cyrano a Varadero with Gianni Minà. Furthermore – and above all – he performed on what can be considered the most important TV show in the history of Italian television: Fatti e Fattacci, 1975, by Roberto Lerici, directed by Antonello Falqui, also featuring Ornella Vanoni, which won the Golden Rose Festival in Montreux. Interestingly enough, Gigi Proietti also sang in Sicilian dialect in the Ballata della Baronessa di Carini’s  opening theme. When  Il maresciallo Rocca was first broadcasted on January 16, 1996, the show became such a instant hit that Pippo Baudo, one of Italy’s greatest showmen and he who was to host that year’s edition of the Sanremo Festival, demanded the series to be interrupted for a few shows during Italy’s annual music contest, fearing that the audience might prefer watching the TV series in which Proietti was the main character, rather than the Sanremo event. Proietti’s broad experience also includes when, at the dawn of his career, he would make ends meet between tours by dubbing movies and cartoons, thus giving his voice to Sylvester the Cat (Loretta Goggi making Tweety’s voice), Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman – among others. He was Sylvester Stallone’s voice in the Italian version of "Rocky", and he was Director of Dubbing in "Rocky II". Gigi Proietti was also a director of theatre shows (often surprising critics for his sobriety) and TV shows (Villa Arzilla, 1990, and Un nero per casa, 1998).

Awards:
1997 – Silver Ribbon for best Male Dubbing Artist, for Robert De Niro, in Casinò.
2003 – Silver Ribbon for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for Febbre da cavallo - La mandrakata.

Honorary titles:
Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, assigned on December 27, 1991, upon a proposal by the Italian Prime Minister’s Office.

Reasons for awarding the prize

Gigi Proietti is a talented and versatile actor who performed in uncountable movies and
theatre shows, as well as on TV and radio programs, and who also had plenty of experiences
as a film director, a dubber and a singer, which undoubtedly makes him one among the
greatest protagonists of Italy’s contemporary culture. A charismatic, passionate, ironic
personality who often says that “the capability to make other people laugh is a gift from
God, and it would be sinful not to exploit it”, yet another proof of his artistic cognizance
and irresistible communicative skills, which in a 50-year long career has allowed him to
stage characters with great humanity and civil attitude. The 13th “Vissi d’Arte - Città di
Alcamo” International Culture Award has been assigned to Gigi Proietti in consideration
of the fact that he is one of the best interpreters of contemporary theatre, for his
unique and intense career, and for his unsurpassed talent and brilliance. Furthermore,
he is a shining example of high professionalism for the young artists, whose vocation is
stimulated by his ability to convey his own immense experience, interest and passion.