JULY 27

Biography

Born in Rome in 1967, GianMarco Tognazzi followed in his father’s footsteps. After a few performances as a child on the sets where his father Ugo worked, like "L'anatra all'arancia" by Salce, "Romanzo popolare" by Monicelli, "Il petomane" by Pasquale Festa Campanile, "Arrivederci e grazie" by Giorgio Capitani, he studied at the Istituto per la Cinematografia "Rossellini" in Rome, and at the same time he trained on set, as assistant director of films and TV series. He then returned to the camera as an actor in some teenage films such as "Vacanze in America" by Carlo Vanzina (1984), "Sposerò Simon Le Bon" by Carlo Cotti (1985), "Una notte al cimitero" by Lamberto Bava, and in the Rai Uno TV series "Diciottanni - Versilia 66" with Margherita Buy (1986). In 1987, he hosted the TV show "Fans Club", in the container program "La Giostra", Canale 5 Sunday entertainment with Pippo Baudo, Enrica Bonaccorti, Mike Bongiorno, Marco Columbro, Sandra Mondaini and Raimondo Vianello. In 1989 he hosted, along with Danny Quinn, Rosita Celentano and Paola Dominguin, the Sanremo Festival. In the same year, he met Beatrice Bracco, acting teacher, with whom he studied for years, and who would radically change his performance path.

He then began to devote himself to theater, first in the Off theaters of Rome with the shows "Crack" (1991), "Macchine in amore" (1992), "La valigia di carne" (1993). Also in 1993, he began a long collaboration with Alessandro Gassmann in "Uomini senza donne" (1993-1996), "Testimoni" (1997-1999, directed by Angelo Longoni), and finally in 2001 in the musical "Some Like It Hot", by Saverio Marconi. Back to prose with Claudia Gerini in "Closer" (2002), he continues with "Il rompiballe" (2003-2006), "Prima pagina" (2006-2008), "Die Panne - ovvero La serata più bella della mia vita" (2008- 2010), " Un nemico del popolo - En folkefiende" (2011-2014, directed by Armando Pugliese), in 2016 with "Americani - Glengarry Glen Ross", by David Mamet directed by Sergio Rubini, and in 2017 with "Guardiana", by Francesca Merloni. In cinema, he starred in many films: in 1990 in "Ultrà" and in 2003 in "Io no" by Ricky Tognazzi, in 1991 in "Crack" by Giulio Base and in "Una storia semplice" by Emidio Greco, in 1993 in "Teste rasate", in 2010 in "Le ultime 56 ore" by Claudio Fragasso, and in 1995 in "I laureati" by Leonardo Pieraccioni. Always with Alessandro Gassmann he starred in "Uomini senza donne" (1996) and "Facciamo fiesta" (1997), both directed by Angelo Longoni. In 1999, it was the turn of "Teste di Cocco" by Ugo Fabrizio Giordani. In 2009, they were together again in "Natale a Beverly Hills" by Neri Parenti, while in 1999 she starred in the film "S.O.S." by Thomas Robsahm and "Prime luci dell'Alba", directed by Lucio Gaudino; with this last film, he was in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, and received in Italy his first Nastri d’Argento nomination as best actor. With his sister, Maria Sole, he filmed "Passato prossimo" (2002) and "Viaggio Sola" (2013).

In 2005, he acted for Luca Mazzieri in "Cielo e terra" and for Michele Placido in "Romanzo criminale" (which earned him a Nastri d’Argento nomination): in 2002 in "Cecenia" by Leonardo Giuliano, in 2007 for Giuseppe Ferrara in film "Guido che sfidò le Brigate Rosse", in 2008 for Francesco Patierno in "Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca" with Elio Germano, while in 2009 he was in "Polvere" by Max D'Epiro and in "Ex" by Fausto Brizzi, with whom he worked again in 2016 in "Poor but rich". In 2012, he starred in "Bella addormentata", directed by Marco Bellocchio, while in 2014 he was in "Incompresa", directed by Asia Argento. In 2016, it was the turn of "Il Ministro", directed by Giorgio Amato, and in 2017 with Vanessa Incontrada he took part in the film "Non c'è Kampo", by Federico Moccia.

In 2018 GianMarco Tognazzi was one of the protagonists of the film "A casa tutti bene", which marked the return of director Gabriele Muccino to Italy. On television, he worked on "Francesco" (2002) by Michele Soavi, "Maria Montessori - Una vita per i bambini" (2007) by Gianluca Maria Tavarelli, "Il bene e il male" by Giorgio Serafini (2009) and "David Copperfield" by Ambrogio Lo Giudice. Since 2011, he took part in the third and fourth seasons of "Squadra Antimafia", where he played the role of the state prosecutor Antonucci. In 2014, he acted in "Il Bosco" by Eros Puglielli and in 2015 in "Pietro Mennea - La freccia del Sud" by his brother Ricky. He also took part in the TV series "Non uccidere" by Giuseppe Gagliardi and in "I misteri di Laura" by Alberto Ferrari, playing Iacopo Banti, Laura's ex-husband. In 2016, he was Count Icilio Sangiorgi in the TV series "Luisa Spagnoli", directed by Lodovico Gasperini, and went back to theater with "Glengarry Glen Ross" by David Mamet, with Sergio Rubini and Francesco Montanari, and directed by Sergio Rubini. In 2017, he returned to TV as the host of "Game Cooking Chopped Italia" for the Food Network channel. He then signed his first theatrical direction for "Guardiana", a show by and with Francesca Merloni, with the music of Remo Anzovino, who also played the male role.

In 2018, he made his theater debut with "Vetri Rotti - Broken glass" by Arthur Miller, with Elena Sofia Ricci, directed by Armando Pugliese. He has also been a tutor in acting classes at the Act Multimedia, and at the N.U.C.T., film schools in Cinecittà, and currently holds master classes for actors for CS Cinema. In 2009, the short film "Fuoriuso" earned him the Nastro d'Argento as Best Actor in a Leading Role. Since 2010 he has taken over "La Tognazza Amata", the farm founded by his father in 1969 in Velletri, which he has transformed into "La Tognazza", a very successful winery and brand. Finally, he has recently finished shooting the film "Non ci resta che il crimine", directed by Massimiliano Bruno.

PHOTO CREDITS: Luisa Carcavale