RIP Lando Buzzanca

 

Italian comedian and actor Lando Buzzanca died from dementia at the Villa Speranza clinic on December 18, 2022. He 87. The son of actor Empedocle Buzzanca [1910-1987], and nephew of actor Gino Buzzanca [1912-1985]. Born in Palermo, Sicily on August 24, 1935, he left high school when he was 16 years old and moved to Rome to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. In order to survive, he took many jobs: waiter, furniture mover, and a brief appearance as a slave in the 1959 film Ben-Hur. He became one of the great actors of Italian comedy in the 1960s and 1970s, who was spurned by critics but obtained a great success with the cinema going public. After two successful "James Tont" films in which he played a parody of James Bond, starting from the late 1960s, Buzzanca had large success in a series of Italian satirical sex comedies which satirized major institutions such as politics, religion, trade unions and financial world. With the decline of the genre, he slowed his film activities, focusing on theatre and television, in which he enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 2000s. Buzzanca appeared in two Euro-westerns: “For a Few Dollars Less” 1966 as Bill; “Rebels on the Loose” 1966 as Private Chester/Ringo.