Background
He was born in Rome, but spent his youth in Pula, where his father, Admiral of the Regia Marina directed the local naval academy.
Actor screenwriter television presenter
He was born in Rome, but spent his youth in Pula, where his father, Admiral of the Regia Marina directed the local naval academy.
He was a well-known Italian television personality. During World World War II, he joined the Italian Social Republic, the fascist puppet state established in northern Italy after the Allied invasion of Italy. He was captured by American troops.
In 1958 he met actress Sandra Mondaini, whom he would marry four years later, and with whom he frequently appeared in television shows during his whole career.
Vianello then moved full-time to cinema, appearing in a total of 79 films between 1947 and 1968. In the 1970s he returned to Radiotelevisione Italiana (the Italian state broadcasting company, then the only one existing) with a series of Saturday shows which made him and Mondaini extremely popular as hosts and authors of sketches.
His best-known and long-lasting television programme, Casa Vianello, was a sit-com shot from 1988 to 2008 and broadcast by Mediaset channels Canale 5 and later moved to Rete 4, in which he and Mondaini played fictionalised versions of themselves. He died at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan on 15 April 2010 at the age of 87.