Renato Rascel

Renato Ranucci (Italian pronunciation: [reˈnaːto raˈnuttʃi]; 27 April 1912 – 2 January 1991), known by the stage name Renato Rascel (pronounced [ˈraʃʃel]), was an Italian film actor and singer. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972. He represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 with the song "Romantica", which tied for eighth place out of thirteen entries.

Biography

Rascel was born to Cesare and Paola Ranucci in Turin. His parents were opera singers, and Renato evidently was born in the back stage of a theater. His father tried to make it up to him by having him baptized at Saint Peter's in Rome. Renato later sang with the "white voices choir" of Saint Peter under the leadership of composer-conductor Lorenzo Perosi.

At the age of 14 Renato started to play drums in ballrooms around Rome. Soon after, he joined the Di Fiorenza Sisters as an actor, dancer and clown and in 1934 he was hired for his first big role by the Schwarts Brothers in the operetta "Al Cavallino bianco". In 1935, he joined Elena Gray for his first foreign tour in Africa.

In 1941 he created his own theater company and he began to develop his distinctive kind of humor that in the following years will crown him as the inventor of the "non-sense" with phrases like "two friends that didn't know each other". He decided to make his small size work for him, being only 5'2" tall, one of his major assets becoming known as the "Tiny Italian" (il piccoletto nazionale) and in his show he accentuated his stature by wearing huge extravagant coats, his most famous one had a large pocket on the back.