Nino Taranto

Nino Taranto
Taranto in Arrivano i dollari (1957)
Born	(1907-08-28)28 August 1907 Naples, Italy
Died	23 February 1986(1986-02-23) (aged 78) Naples, Italy
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1924-1971

Nino Taranto (28 August 1907 – 23 February 1986) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 83 films between 1924 and 1971.

Born in Naples, Taranto started his career as a child actor in 1918 starring in some local stage companies. After studying mime and dance he joined the company of . In 1928 he successfully entered into the sceneggiata genre: invited on tour in the United States, he returned with "a pianola tape and a thousand dollars", used to finance his first company of variety, which lasted only fifteen days and ended in total disaster. In 1933 he debuted on dramatic theater and in revue, a genre he focused until the 1950s.

Taranto achieved large notoriety thanks to two macchiette (i.e. comic musical monologues caricaturing stock characters), Ciccio Formaggio and the Baron Carlo Mazza, two caricatural characters of proven success that he reprised several times during his career.

He debuted in cinema in 1938, but achieved some success just in the fifties. In 1953 he won a Nastro d'Argento for Best Actor for his performance in Luigi Zampa's Anni facili. In the sixties he was several times sidekick of Totò in a number of successful comedies and starred in numerous musicarelli films.

Taranto also starred in a number of TV-films, took part to several television and radio variety shows and recorded several songs. In 1985 RAI honored the artist with a monographic documentary series in four parts, Taranto Story.