Renzo Arbore

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Renzo Arbore (born June 24, 1937 in Foggia) is an Italian television showman, singer, musician, film actor and director.

Arbore became nationally recognised as radio anchor man, together with Gianni Boncompagni, in the late 1960s, with shows such as Bandiera gialla (1965), Per voi giovani (1967), Alto Gradimento (1970), increasingly marked by their ironical approach which later became one of their brands. He debuted in Italian television with Speciale per voi (1969-1970), which included debates about singers of that age. His first great TV success was the surreal L'altra domenica ("The Other Sunday", 1976-1979), in which he launched numerous comic artists including Mario Marenco, Isabella Rossellini and Roberto Benigni. Also very successful were Quelli della notte (1985), with Nino Frassica and Roberto D'Agostino, and Indietro tutta! (1988), again with Frassica, which established Arbore as one of the most intelligent and cult figures of Italian televisions.

In the meantime Arbore wrote and directed the movies Il pap'occhio (1980) and FF.SS cioè che mi hai portato a fare sopra a Posillipo se non mi vuoi bene? (1983), both surreal stories featuring numerous actors launched by him and others friends (including Luciano De Crescenzo, Benigni, Rossellini and many others), set in his adoptive city of Naples. Arbore also played and sung in numerous of his shows, notably in Quelli della Notte and Indietro tutta!, whose music albums sold hundreds of thousand copies in Italy.

A clarinet player, in 1991 Arbore founded the Orchestra Italian, grouping 15 artists with the aim to popularize Neapolitan music worldwide. He was also director of the Umbria Jazz festival. In 1986 he classified second at the Sanremo Festival with the ironical "The clarinet".

His last TV show is Speciale per me - Meno siamo, meglio stiamo! on Rai Uno.