Nino Castelnuovo

Biography

Francesco "Nino" Castelnuovo (born October 28, 1936 in Lecco, Italy) is an Italian actor. His perhaps most prominent role was starring as Guy Foucher in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Castelnuovo has had notable appearances in The English Patient, Rocco and His Brothers, L'Emmerdeur, Camille 2000, and The Five Man Army among others. After graduating from the Piccolo Theatre School of Milan, he landed a small part in Un Maledetto Imbroglio (The Facts of Murder) (1959), directed by Pietro Germi, and continued to play supporting roles in such films as Il Gobbo (The Hunchback), directed by Carlo Lizzani and Rocco and His Brothers (both released in 1960), directed by Luchino Visconti. When the popular American television show, Disneyland, traveled to Italy in 1962, Castelnuovo appeared alongside Annette Funicello in two episodes of the mini-movie, Escapade in Florence, singing, playing the guitar, and adding the Italian verses to the jovial tarantella, Dream Boy. Castelnuovo's international break-out role arrived with Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) in 1964, directed by Jacques Demy, an entirely-sung film, in which he played opposite young Catherine Deneuve. Nominated for the American Motion Picture Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language film, the film gained the attention of both film critics and the public, and won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in February of that same year. Nevertheless, the work remained largely unseen in Italy due to the film-going public's distaste for musicals at the time. However, a few years after the release of the film, Castelnuovo gained fame as an actor in Italy, thanks to the role of Renzo in the television mini-series I promissi sposi, shown first on Channel RAI (1967). He also starred alongside an international cast of Peter Graves, James Daly, and Bud Spencer in the Spaghetti Western, The Five Man Army (1969) as a Mexican revolutionary, and as Armand in Radley Metzger's psychedelic, sexcapade-drama, Camille 2000 (1969). Since then, for over four decades, Castelnuovo has been featured primarily on television serials around Europe, where he has portrayed numerous parts and has achieved great success. Italian viewers may also remember that in tandem with his long television and film career, he appeared as the athletically-sound spokesman for the corn oil company Cuore (Italian for 'Heart') from 1977 to 1982. In 1996, Castelnuovo also appeared briefly as D'Agostino in the Academy Award winning film, The English Patient. Castelnuovo continues to be active on the Italian theatre stage as well, most recently starring in a production of Ben Hecht's and Charles MacArthur's 1931 play The Front Page --Italian title, Prima Pagina -- in 2002.