Raimondo Vianello

Raimondo Vianello (7 May 1922 – 15 April 2010) was an Italian film actor, comedian, and television host. He was a well-known Italian television personality.

Biography He was born in Rome, but spent his youth in Pula, where his father, an Admiral of the Regia Marina, directed the local naval academy.

During World War II he joined the Italian Social Republic, the fascist puppet state established in northern Italy after the Allied invasion of Italy. He was captured by American troops. In 1958 he met actress Sandra Mondaini, whom he married four years later, and with whom he frequently appeared in TV shows during his whole career.

His first famous partner on the small screen was Ugo Tognazzi with whom, starting from 1954, he hosted the satyrical show Un due tre; the show was halted in 1959 after the duo performed an ironical sketch about the then-president of the Republic, Giovanni Gronchi. His wife Sandra Mondaini died 5 months later in the same hospital.

Selected filmography Departure at Seven (1946) Fear and Sand (1948) Napoleon (1951) Poppy (1952) Laugh! Laugh! Laugh! (1954) My Wife's Enemy (1959) Guardatele ma non toccatele (1959) Sua Eccellenza si fermò a mangiare (1961) Hercules in the Valley of Woe (1961) I maniaci (1964) Amore all'italiana (1965) I figli del leopardo (1965) Il vostro super agente Flit (1966) For a Few Dollars Less (1966) Seven Times Seven (1968)