Who Are Those Guys? ~ Mario Carotenuto

Mario Carotenuto was born in Rome, Italy on June 29, 1915. He lived with his older brother Memmo [1908-1980], who was later an actor, and had a turbulent childhood and his rebellious character earned him, as a teenager, three years of reform school at one of the correctional institutions in which the young Carotenuto served his debts in Cairo Montenotte.  In 1953 he married the actress and dancer Luisa Poselli with whom they had a daughter Claretta, who became an actress and director. The couple separated in 1964 and their divorce was made official in 1974.

Mario’s made his stage debut at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome at the age of eight, but later, still a child, he had jobs that had little to do with the theater.  Only in the second half of the forties did his career begin as an actor on the radio.  During World War II Carotenuto was able to get out of a German prison camp (as he said) enrolling in the Italian SS and became part of the theatrical company dependent on the propaganda department. He then dedicated himself to the theater, in 1953, he was even the head of one of the companies.

He was often present in several of the great Italian comedy films, often in the role of as a Roman industrialist, Mario Carotenuto appeared in more than a hundred films, some of which were award-winning, including “Pane, amore e ...” (1955), in which the parish priest Don Matteo Carotenuto (brother of Vittorio De Sica) and “Lo scopone scientifico”, for which he deserved the Silver Mask in 1972, as a masterly interpreter. He was also often present in musicals of which he made nine.

His theatrical career was very important. His interpretation of the role of Peachum in The Three Penny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Giorgio Strehler, was important, followed in the years by important participations in the musicals of Garinei and Giovannini but also in classical theater, interpreting Shakespeare, Pirandello and Molière, and brilliant, Feydeau and Neil Simon, until the end of his long career. Memorable was his interpretation of Shylock in the Merchant of Venice.

Occasionally he was active in dubbing, he lent his voice to Mario Conocchia in “8½” of Federico Fellini .

Mario died at the Aurelia Hospital in Rome on April 14, 1995 after a brief illness.  After the funeral ceremony, his body was transferred to the cemetery of Grottammare, in the small town of Marches of which Gabriella Cottignoli is born, the second wife of the actor.

CAROTENUTO, Mario [6/29/1915, Rome, Lazio, Italy – 4/14/1995, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – theater, film, radio, TV actor, brother of actor Memme Carotenuto [1908-1980], uncle of actresss Nennella Carotenuto, actor Bruno Carotenuto [1941-    ], married to dancer, actress Luisa Poselli (1953–1974), father of director, actress Claretta Carotenuto [1954-    ], married to actress Gabriella Cottignoli (1970–1995).

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