Alighiero Noschese

Alighiero Noschese was an Italian TV impersonator and actor.

Life and career

Noschese was born in Naples. After an unsuccessful attempt to work as journalist, he debuted for Italian radio as imitator and parodist. After some theatre appearances with Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini, he became popular with the TV show Doppia coppia, where, for the first time in the then wholly state-controlled Italian television, an actor was allowed to parody politicians.
Noschese had an outstanding capability for imitating not only the voice of his subjects, but also their physical features and attitudes. In an interview just before his death, Noschese listed a total of 1,156 voices he had imitated in his career.
On 3 December 1979, at the peak of his career, Noschese shot himself while under care for clinical depression in Rome. However, as firearms and other letal objects are not allowed to depressed patients, it is suspected that someone murdered Noschese or smuggled the gun to him.

Selected filmography

Doctor Antonio Those Two in the Legion – Mustafa Abdul BeyObiettivo ragazze – Giuseppe QuagliaruloScanzonatissimo James Tont operazione U.N.O. – NoskesMercanti di vergini Io non scappo... fuggo Io non spezzo... rompo – Riccardo ViganòIl furto è l'anima del commercio?!... – Conte Gaetano GargiuloIo non vedo, tu non parli, lui non sente – Luigi GorlettiBoccaccio – Lambertuccio De CecinaIl terrore con gli occhi storti – Giacinto PudduThe Mighty Anselmo and His Squire – Il prode Anselmo da MontebelloThe Funny Face of the Godfather – Don Vito Monreale / Nick BullioneUnbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia – Antonio Lo Mazzo