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Sordi was born in Rome to schoolteacher and musician parents. He was the last of five children. Sordi was named in honour of an older sibling who died several days after his birth.
Education
Sordi enrolled in
Milan's
dramatic arts academy but was kicked out because of his thick
Roman accent. In the meantime, he studied to be a bass opera singer. His vocal distinctiveness would become his trademark.[3]
Career
Cinema and television
Sordi[4] established himself as an icon from a career that spanned seven decades[5] of Italian cinema with his skills in comedy and light drama.
His movie career began in the late 1930s with bit parts and secondary characters in wartime movies. His early roles included Fellini'sThe White Sheik in 1952; Fellini's I vitelloni(1953), a movie about young slackers, in which he plays a weak immature loafer; and a starring role in The Bachelor as a single man trying to find love.[citation needed] Sordi frequently appeared in Italian historical comedies.[6]
In 1959, he appeared in Monicelli's Great War, considered by many critics and film historians to be one of the best Italian comedies. The Hollywood Foreign Press recognized his abilities when he was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical or Comedy for To Bed or Not to Bed (1963). Sordi acted alongside Britain's
David Niven in the
World War II comedy The Best of Enemies. In 1965, he was in another highly regarded comedy, I complessi (Complexes).[citation needed]
Sordi was also a prominent voice actor and dubber.[10] Prior to the war he began working as a dubber for the Italian versions of many Laurel and Hardy shorts and movies, voicing
Oliver Hardy after winning an
MGM contest for the Italian voice nearest to that of Oliver Hardy.[11] Sordi provided the voice of Hardy in more than forty
Laurel and Hardy films from 1939 to 1951, paired with Mauro Zambuto, who voiced
Stan Laurel.
Sordi was discreet about his private life. Despite never marrying and having no children, Sordi was in several relationships, including a nine-year romance with actress
Andreina Pagnani.[13]
Sordi was raised Roman Catholic. Sordi was also a big supporter of
AS Roma football team. This was something he expressed a fondness of in some of his films.
Awards and honors
Sordi won seven
David di Donatello, Italy's most prestigious film award, holding the record of
David di Donatello as best actor, and four awards for his works from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists. He also received a
Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the
Venice Film Festival in 1995, and
The Golden Globe Award[14] for his performance as an Italian labourer stranded in
Sweden in To Bed or Not to Bed. In 2000, the City of Rome made him honorary mayor for a day to celebrate his eightieth birthday.[citation needed]
In 2001, Sordi was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died of pneumonia and bronchitis at his house in Rome on 24 February 2003. A crowd in excess of a million gathered to pay their last respects at his funeral by the
Basilica of St. John Lateran.[19]