Giovanni "Pupo" De Luca (18 December 1924 – 18 December 2006) was an Italian actor and jazz musician.

Life and career

Born in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, after the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

De Luca started his career in the theaters of his hometown, performing in

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...

s, dialect theatre, and dramas. He had his breakout in the late 1960s, with the role of Fritz in the

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

TV-series ''

Nero Wolfe Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in Ne ...

''. In films, he was mainly active as a

character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...

, except for a number of main roles in a few low budget comedies. De Luca was also well known as a jazz drummer, and his collaborations include

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

Franco Cerri Franco Cerri (29 January 1926 – 18 October 2021) was an Italian guitarist and double bassist. Biography Cerri was born in Milan and learned to play guitar when he was 17. In 1945 he became a member of the group led by Gorni Kramer and joined ...

Enrico Intra Enrico Intra (born 3 July 1935 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian jazz pianist, composer, Conductor (music), conductor. During his long career, Intra has collaborated with such notable musicians as Gerry Mulligan, Franco Cerri, Lee Konitz, Milt Jackso ...

Bud Shank Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank Jr. (May 27, 1926 – April 2, 2009) was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and thro ...

, and

Gianni Basso Gianni Basso, (24 May 1931 – 17 August 2009), was an Italian jazz tenor saxophonist, who was influenced by Stan Getz. He was born in Asti, Italy. He started his career shortly after World War II, at first as a clarinetist, then switching to t ...

. With Intra and Gianni Buongiovanni he is considered a "founding father" of the

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

Derby Club in his hometown. De Luca retired from showbusiness in the early 1990s and moved to

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, where he died in 2006, aged 82 years old.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Luca, Pupo 1924 births 2006 deaths Italian male film actors Italian male stage actors Italian male television actors Musicians from Milan Italian jazz drummers Male drummers Male jazz musicians Male actors from Milan 20th-century Italian male musicians Italian expatriates in Spain