Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/844884
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 5 JULY 2017 5 News Genius behind Fantozzi fades away at 84 MANY Maltese, particularly those who enjoyed watching Italian television in the 1980s and 1990s, were shocked to hear of the death earlier this week of beloved Italian actor Paolo Villaggio, best known for his character Ugo Fan- tozzi. Villaggio was an Italian actor, voice actor, writer, director and comedian and is noted for the characters he cre- ated with paradoxical and grotesque characteristics: Professor Kranz, the ultra-timid Giandomenico Fracchia, and the obsequious and meek account- ant Ugo Fantozzi, perhaps the favourite character in Italian comedy. He authored several books, usually of satirical character. He also acted in dramatic roles, and appeared in several movies. He was born in Genoa, to Ettore Vil- laggio, a surveyor originally from Paler- mo, and Maria, originally from Venice, a German-language teacher. Paolo had a twin brother, Piero, who was a dean at the University of Pisa. Villaggio went to high school at Liceo ginnasio Andrea Doria, then started studying law at the university, but never completed his degree. His jobs included being a clerk for the Italsider steel works, which inspired his charac- ter Ugo Fantozzi. Maurizio Costanzo discovered his artistic potential and, in 1967, he advised Villaggio to play in a cabaret in Rome. From there, Villaggio was hired for the TV programme Quelli della domenica (Those guys of Sunday), in which Fan- tozzi made his first appearance, intro- duced his characters, the aggressive "Professor Kranz" and the hypocritical "Giandomenico Fracchia". He received several cinema awards, including the David di Donatello (1990), the Nastro d'Argento (1992) and the Golden Lion for his entire career (1996). Fantozzi After his television experience, Villag- gio started writing, for the magazines L'Espresso and L'Europeo, short stories featuring accountant Ugo Fantozzi, a man with a weak character, dogged by misfortune and by the "mega-director" of the "mega-company" where he works. In 1971, the publishing house Rizzoli released the book Fantozzi, a collection of these stories, which sold over a mil- lion copies. The first book received the Gogol Prize in Moscow and led to his 1975 appearance in the film Fantozzi, directed by Luciano Salce. The film's success led to a sequel, Il secondo tragico Fantozzi, with the same director in the following year, in which Fantozzi delivered his most famous line: "Per me ... La Corazzata Kotiomkin [sic] ... รจ una cagata pazzes- ca", or roughly "For me The Battleship Kotemkin [sic] is an unbelievable load of crap". Villaggio died in Rome on 3 July 2017 from complications of diabetes at the age of 84. Maurizio Costanzo discovered the artistic potential of Paolo Villaggio (pictured) and, in 1967, he advised Villaggio to play in a cabaret in Rome. President of Malta appointed special ambassador of UN World Tourism Organisation JEANELLE MIFSUD THE United Nations World Tourism Organisation has ap- pointed President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca as a special am- bassador for the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. During a meeting at the United Nations World Tour- ism Organisation headquarters in Madrid, Coleiro Preca and secretary general ambassador Taleb Rifai spoke about the im- portance of sustainable and re- sponsible tourism, as a means to build peace, social cohesion, and prosperity for all humanity. During her working visit in Spain, the President is leading a delegation made up of Malta Hotels and Restaurants Associ- ation president Tony Zahra, and CEO Andrew Agius Muscat, as well as high-level representa- tives from the Mediterranean Tourism Foundation, and the director for strategy and plan- ning within the Ministry for Tourism. Zahra and Agius Muscat spoke about the initiatives be- ing taken by the Mediterranean Tourism Foundation to turn the Mediterranean and Malta into a hub of educational, cultural, technological innovation, and environmental sustainability, for the tourism industry. As patron of the Mediter- ranean Tourism Foundation, Coleiro Preca formally asked the World Tourism Organisa- tion to affiliate the foundation within this global organisation. Through this affiliation, which was accepted in principle, the Mediterranean Tourism Foun- dation will be in a position to share good practices and initia- tives which it is spearheading to other regions of the world. This is the second time that President Coleiro Preca has been given recognition by the United Nations, following the "Agent of Change Award", awarded in September 2016 in New York. The President of Malta, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca with UN secretary general ambassador Taleb Rifai