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His trademark character Fantozzi became part of the Italian language: "Fantozziano," referred to a situation, is acknowledged by some dictionaries as synonymous with embarrassing, Kafkian, low-profile or poor taste.

Father is an Italian engineer and mother is a German twice-graduated teacher.

He wrote the lyrics for the humorous ballad "Carlo Martello torna dalla battaglia di Poitiers," brought to fame by the top popular Italian folk singer Fabrizio De André.

His career started as a TV stand-up comic, but his top trademark character, the low-profile accountant Fantozzi, was born as a book character when he started writing. Despite the fact that the book was a big hit and the movies made from it were also hits, he was not--to put it lightly--a "favorite" of Italian film critics. Nevertheless, the book won him the Gogol Prize for humor literature in Russia.

He has a twin brother named Piero, an engineering graduate who became Full Professor of Construction Science (the most important subject for the courses of civil engineering in Italy), at the prestigious University of Pisa.

His character of Fantozzi is hugely popular in Italy, and that name is a quite common one in that country. There is actually an association of Fantozzis, and they have made him an honorary member.

Former member of the far-left party "Democrazia Proletaria".

Two children: Elisabetta (b.1959) and Piero (b.1965).

He announced the decision to retire as an actor, upon completion of filming Demian Gregory's film Contaminations.

His last movie is Just Married (2019), directed by Valerio Zanoli filmed a few months before his death.