Gianni Lunadei (May 1, 1938 – June 17, 1998) was an Italian Argentine actor. He is considered one of the most versatile actors of his generation, and is best known for his work in Argentine comedy. Biography Lunadei was born in Rome in 1938. His mother was a seamstress and his father a brick mason, and the young Lunadei first developed an interest in acting when at age five, his parents introduced him to the cinema and theater. The family struggled during World War II, however, and his mother emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Gianni arrived in 1950, followed by his father shortly afterward. He debuted in the local theater in 1954 playing George in a local production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, and was later cast in Seán O'Casey's The Shadow of a Gunman and Anton Chekhov's Platonov. His career on the stage flourished, and he worked as a resident actor in the National Comedy for eleven years, and in the General San Martín Theatre for six. Beyond the stage, he had a turn as Count Dracula in a 1968 made-for-television special starring veteran horror film actor Narciso Ibáñez Menta. Among Lunadei's notable stage roles from this era include those in Peter Weiss' Marat/Sade, Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters, as well as the title role in Pantaleon, a commedia dell'arte work by Argentine playwright Villanueva Cosse. This latter role won Lunadei the city of Mar del Plata's "Star of the Sea" in 1975 with co-star China Zorrilla. He earned a Molière Award for this role, and won a second one in 1977. He married actress Stella Maris Lanzani, and they had four children. Lunadei ventured into Argentine cinema in 1976 with a minor part in Carlos Galettini's tragedy Juan que reía (Juan Who Once Laughed). He had a leading role in Manuel Antín's Allá lejos y hace tiempo (Long Ago and Far Away, 1978); but in subsequent years he became known for portraying manic characters in picaresque comedy films and on television. Lunadei explained in a 1984 interview that his childhood dream had been to be a clown. One notable exception was his role as the unscrupulous financier Arteche in Fernando Ayala's tragicomic Plata dulce (Sweet Money, 1982), whose title referred to the economic bubble and collapse caused by José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz's financial deregulation policies of the late 1970s. Lunadei was cast by comedy