Francesco "Nino" Castelnuovo (28 October 1936 – 6 September 2021)[2] was an Italian actor of film, stage and television, best known for his starring role as Guy Foucher in the French musical film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964).[3]
Castelnuovo was born the youngest of three boys in Lecco, Lombardy as the son of maid Emilia Paola (née Sala) and button factory employee Camillo Castelnuovo.[3] He had two older brothers, Pierantonio (b. 1930; d. 1976) and Clemente. After being a house painter, a mechanic and a workman, he moved to Milan, where he started working as a sales agent, and at the same time, he enrolled in the acting school of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan.[1] He became a father for the first time to his son Lorenzo when he married Danila Trebbi (b. 1955), an Italian actress.
Career
In 1957, Castelnuovo debuted as a mime in the RAI children's television show Zurli il mago del giovedì.[1][4]
When the American television show Disneyland travelled to Italy in 1962, he appeared with 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".[5]
From then on, Castelnuovo was featured primarily on television serials around Europe, where he portrayed numerous parts.[1] He appeared as the athletically sound spokesman for the corn oil company Cuore from 1977 to 1982.[1]
Castelnuovo also appeared briefly as D'Agostino in The English Patient (1996), and he continued to be active on the Italian theatre stage. In 2002, he starred in a production of the 1931 comedy play The Front Page (Italian title, Prima Pagina).[7]
