Akademik

(1955-)

   Actor and director. Son of veteran actor Ugo Tognazzi, Ricky made his first appearance in films at the age of eight, playing his father's son in one of the episodes of Dino Risi's I mostri (15 from Rome, 1963). He subsequently studied at the DAMS (Faculty of Communication) in Bologna before serving as an assistant on a number of films directed by, among others, Pupi Avati, Luigi Comencini, and Maurizio Ponzi. He also worked as an actor, playing his first significant part as a young nobleman in Ponzi's Qualcosa di biondo (Aurora by Night, 1984), for which he received the David di Donatello award for best supporting role. After appearing in Ettore Scola's La famiglia (The Family, 1987) he made his directorial debut with the light social comedy Piccoli equivoci (Little Misunderstandings, 1988), for which he received both the David and the Nastro d'argento for Best New Director. He then turned to more socially committed themes with Ultra (Hooligans, 1991), a powerful portrayal of the phenomenon of soccer hooliganism that was awarded both a David and the Silver Bear at Berlin; La scorta (The Escort, 1993), a film about an honest judge trying unsuccessfully to break the hold of the Sicilian Mafia; and Vite strozzate (Strangled Lives, 1996), a thriller centered on the new social scourge of usury in Italy in the 1990s, the latter earning him another nomination for the Golden Bear at Berlin. After Excellent Cadavers (1999), a fictional portrait of the Mafia-fighting judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, made entirely in English for American television, Tognazzi changed direction somewhat with Canone inverso—making love (2000), the adaptation of a Holocaust novel by Paolo Maurensig. His most recent directorial effort has been the much-praised Il Papa buono (John XXIII: The Good Pope, 2003), a fictional biography of Pope Roncalli, with English actor Bob Hoskins in the title role.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira