Totò
Acting • Born 1898-02-14 – Died 1967-04-15
Biography
Totò was born Antonio Clemente in a poor district of Naples, the illegitimate son of Anna Clemente from Sicily and Marquis Giuseppe De Curtis from Naples. Nicknamed “il principe della risata’ (the prince of laughter), he was an Italian comedian, film and theatre actor, writer, singer and songwriter, and widely considered one of the greatest Italian artists of the 20th century. While he first gained his popularity as a comic actor, his dramatic roles, poetry, and songs are all of cultural import; his style and a number of his recurring jokes and gestures have become universally known memes in Italy. As a comic actor, Totò is classified as an heir of the Commedia dell'Arte tradition, and has been compared to such figures as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. At the age of 15, he was already acting as a comedian in small theatres, under the pseudonym "Clerment". His early repertoire mostly consisted in imitations of Gustavo De Marco's characters. He served in the army during World War I and then went back to acting to develop the trademarks of his style. In 1937, he appeared in his first movie "Fermo con le mani", and later starred in 96 more films, many of which are still frequently broadcast on Italian television. In his vast cinematographic career, Totò had the opportunity to act side by side with virtually all major Italian actors of the time. Totò's unmistakable figure, with his peculiarly irregular face (due to an accident in his teen years), and his unique trademark ability to disarticulate his body like a marionette, soon became very popular and his comic gags became part of the Italian culture. Totò died at the age of 69 in Rome after a series of heart attacks. Due to overwhelming popularity there were three funeral services: the first in Rome, and the second and third in Naples. Totò's birth home has been recently opened to the public as a museum.
Filmography
124 credits
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Movie • 1958
Dante Cruciani
The Hawks and the Sparrows
Movie • 1966
Totò Innocenti / Frate Cicillo
Side Street Story
Movie • 1950
Pasquale Miele
You're on Your Own
Movie • 1959
Il nonno illuminato
Fifa e arena
Movie • 1948
Nicolino Capece
He Who Hesitates Is Lost
Movie • 1960
Antonio Guardalavecchia
Toto and Carolina
Movie • 1955
Antonio Caccavallo
Totó in color
Movie • 1952
Antonio Scannagatti
Toto the Sheik
Movie • 1950
Antonio Sapone
Totò d'Arabia
Movie • 1965
Totò
Sua Eccellenza si fermò a mangiare
Movie • 1961
Dott. Biagio Tanzarella
Cops and Robbers
Movie • 1951
Ferdinando Esposito
Toto in Madrid
Movie • 1959
Totò Scorceletti
Letto a tre piazze
Movie • 1960
Antonio Di Cosimo
Toto in Paris
Movie • 1958
Marchese Gastone de Chemantel / Chateau-Boiron / il vagabondo Totò
Two Little Orphans
Movie • 1947
Gasparre
Gli onorevoli
Movie • 1963
Antonio La Trippa
Le sei mogli di Barbablù
Movie • 1950
Totò Esposito
Totò, Peppino e le fanatiche
Movie • 1958
Antonio Vignarello
Totò Double or Nothing?
Movie • 1956
Duca Gagliardo della Forcoletta
Totò vs the Four
Movie • 1963
commissario Antonio Saracino
Yvonne of the Night
Movie • 1949
Nino, il fantasista
Signori si nasce
Movie • 1960
Ottone Degli Ulivi, detto Zazà
Toto Tours Italy
Movie • 1948
Prof. Totò Casamandrei
Totò, Vittorio and the Doctor
Movie • 1957
Michele Spillone detto Mike
Toto and the Women
Movie • 1952
Antonio Scaparro
Il coraggio
Movie • 1955
Gennaro Vaccariello
What Ever Happened to Baby Toto?
Movie • 1964
Totò Baby / il Padre
Totò Looking for a House
Movie • 1949
Beniamino Lomacchio
Totò Seeks Peace
Movie • 1954
Gennaro Piselli
Totò versus the Black Pirate
Movie • 1964
Josè
Toto and the Kings of Rome
Movie • 1952
Ercole Pappalardo
Toto and Marcellino
Movie • 1958
Il Professore
The Monk of Monza
Movie • 1963
Pasquale Cicciacalda / Don Manuel
Toto and Cleopatra
Movie • 1963
Marc'Antonio / Totonno
The Overtaxed
Movie • 1959
Torquato Pezzella
Toto at Night
Movie • 1962
Nini
Totò in the Moon
Movie • 1958
Pasquale Belafronte
Il medico dei pazzi
Movie • 1954
Felice Sciosciammocca
The Passionate Thief
Movie • 1960
Umberto 'Infortunio' Pennazzuto
L'allegro fantasma
Movie • 1941
Nicolino & Gelsomino & Antonino
The Three Thieves
Movie • 1954
Tapioca
Totò all'inferno
Movie • 1955
Antonio Marchi
Totò, Peppino and... the Sweet Life
Movie • 1961
Antonio Barbacane
Caprice Italian Style
Movie • 1968
Anziano Signore / Iago
The Rape of the Sabine
Movie • 1945
Aristide Tromboni
Of Life and Love
Movie • 1954
Rosario Chiarchiaro
The Mandrake
Movie • 1965
il frate
The Emperor of Capri
Movie • 1949
Antonio De Fazio
The Commandant
Movie • 1963
Col. Antonio Cavalli
Totò le Mokò
Movie • 1949
Antonio Lumaconi / Totò le Moko
Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy
Movie • 1956
Antonio Caponi
San Giovanni decollato
Movie • 1940
Mastro Agostino Miciacio
The Band of Honest Men
Movie • 1956
Antonio Buonocore
Hands Off Me!
Movie • 1937
Conte Toto di Torretota
The Gold of Naples
Movie • 1954
Don Saverio Petrillo (segment "Il guappo")
Toto the Third Man
Movie • 1951
Piero / Paolo / Totò
Tototarzan
Movie • 1950
Antonio Della Buffas
Le motorizzate
Movie • 1963
Urbano Cacace (segment "Il Vigile Ignoto")
Lo smemorato di Collegno
Movie • 1962
lo smemorato
Toto, Fabrizi and the Young People Today
Movie • 1960
Cavalier Antonio Cocozza
Animal Crackers
Movie • 1939
Barone Tolomeo dei Tolomei
Noi duri
Movie • 1960
L'Algerino
Funniest Show on Earth
Movie • 1953
Tottons
Where Is Freedom?
Movie • 1954
Salvatore Lojacono
The Thieves
Movie • 1959
Commissario Di Savio
The Law Is the Law
Movie • 1958
Giuseppe La Paglia
The Firemen of Viggiù
Movie • 1949
Totò
Totò diabolicus
Movie • 1962
Galeazzo / Carlo / Scipione / Antonio / Laudomia / Pasquale
47 Talking Corpses
Movie • 1950
Il barone Antonio Peletti
La cambiale
Movie • 1959
Cesare Posalaquaglia
Totò e Peppino divisi a Berlino
Movie • 1962
Antonio La Puzza / Amministratore di Canarinis
The Two Marshals
Movie • 1961
Antonio Capurro
Neapolitan Turk
Movie • 1953
Felice Sciosciammocca
Totòtruffa '62
Movie • 1961
Antonio LoRuffo
Poverty and Nobility
Movie • 1954
Don Felice Sciosciammocca
Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge
Movie • 1956
Antonio
Totò versus Maciste
Movie • 1962
Totokamen
The Treasure of San Gennaro
Movie • 1966
Don Vincenzo
Two Colonels
Movie • 1963
Colonnello Di Maggio
Destinazione Piovarolo
Movie • 1955
Antonio La Quaglia
The Shortest Day
Movie • 1963
frate bersagliere
Figaro qua... Figaro là
Movie • 1950
Figaro
Totò nella fossa dei leoni
Movie • 1943
Totò
Totò Looking for Wife
Movie • 1950
Totò
Totò sexy
Movie • 1963
Nini Cantachiaro
Totò Story
Movie • 1968
Seven Hours of Troubles
Movie • 1951
Totò De Pasquale
Legs of Gold
Movie • 1958
Barone Luigi Fontana
Laughs Italian Style
Movie • 1964
Un sorriso, uno schiaffo, un bacio in bocca
Movie • 1975
(archive footage)
Beautiful Families
Movie • 1964
Filiberto Comanducci
Rita the American Girl
Movie • 1965
Serafino Benvenuti
Man, Beast and Virtue
Movie • 1953
Prof. Paolino
The Witches
Movie • 1967
Ciancicato Miao (segment "La Terra vista dalla Luna")
Totò e il Principe De Curtis - L'uomo oltre la maschera
Movie • 2023
Se stesso
Una di quelle
Movie • 1953
Rocco Bardelli
Il latitante
Movie • 1967
Gennaro La Pezza
Tutto Totò - Il tuttofare
Movie • 1967
Tutto Totò - Don Giovannino
Movie • 1967
Barnaba Parmiggiani aka 'Babà'
Tutto Totò - Totò Ciak
Movie • 1967
Totò l'agente segreto
Tutto Totò - Totò Ye Ye
Movie • 1967
musicista capellone
Tutto Totò - Totò a Napoli
Movie • 1967
Totò, la guida non autorizzata
Tutto Totò - Premio Nobel
Movie • 1967
il professor Serafino Bolletta
Tutto Totò - La scommessa
Movie • 1967
Oberdan Lo Cascio
Tutto Totò - Il grande maestro
Movie • 1967
Mardoccheo Stonatelli
Latin Lovers
Movie • 1965
Rag. Antonio Gargiulo (ep. Amore e morte)
Variety carousel
Movie • 1955
Slave Girl
Movie • 1947
Gobbone il cammello (narratore)
Siamo tutti Alberto Sordi?
Movie • 2020
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Naples '44
Movie • 2016
Self (archive footage)
How We Got the Italian Movie Business Into Trouble: The True Story of Franco and Ciccio
Movie • 2004
Self (archive footage)
Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita
Movie • 2021
Self (archive footage)
We Are Cinema
Movie • 2021
Self (archive footage)
The Earth As Seen from the Moon
Movie • 1967
Ciancicato Miao
What Are the Clouds?
Movie • 1968
Iago
Are We Men or Corporals?
Movie • 1955
Totò Esposito
Roman Tales
Movie • 1955
Professor Semprini
Antologia di Totò
Movie • 1978
Totò (se stesso)
The Anatomy of Love
Movie • 1954
Dionillo
SuperTotò
Movie • 1980
Hollywood sul Tevere
Movie • 2009
Forza Italia!
Movie • 1977
Self (archive footage)
Cinépanorama
TV • 1956
Self