Nino Frassica

Italian actor and television personality (born 1950)

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Actor
comedian

Years active1970–presentHeight1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)Spouses

Daniela Conti

(m. 1985; div. 1993)

Barbara Exignotis

(m. 2018)

Antonino "Nino" Frassica (born 11 December 1950) is an Italian actor and television personality.

Biography and career

Born in Messina, Italy, Frassica is mostly known for his deadpan humour, characterized by absurd jokes he described as a way of "ruining logic and the Italian language".^[1] He is considered "a master of nonsense humour" (but only in the summer).^[2] He debuted for Italian television with Renzo Arbore's Quelli della notte (1985), in which he played a semi-illiterate friar. Later, again in collaboration with Arbore, he was given a major role in the surreal quiz show Indietro tutta! (lit. Full speed backwards!, 1987).

Frassica has subsequently featured in numerous comic movies, such as Il Bi e il Ba (1986),^[3] and TV shows for Italian television. He plays Marshal Antonio "Nino" Cecchini on the Italian TV series Don Matteo.^[4]

Selected filmography

Films

"FF.SS." – Cioè: "...che mi hai portato a fare sopra a Posillipo se non mi vuoi più bene?" (1983)
Il Bi e il Ba (1985)
Mortacci (1989)
Vacanze di Natale '91 (1991)
Sognando la California (1992)
Anni 90 (1992)
Anni 90: Parte II (1993)
La fidanzata di papà (2008)
Baarìa (2009)
Somewhere (2010)
The Tourist (2010)
Natale a Londra – Dio salvi la regina (2016)
Omicidio all'italiana (2017)
No Country for Young Men (2017)
Pare parecchio Parigi (2024)

TV series

Don Matteo (Rai 1, 2000–present)
L'ispettore Coliandro (Rai 2, 2009)
Mario (MTV, 2013)
The Mafia Kills Only in Summer^[5] (Rai 1, 2016)

TV programs

Quelli della notte (RAIDUE, 1985)
Fantastico 7 (RAIUNO, 1986–1987)
Indietro tutta! (RAIDUE, 1987–1988)
XLIX Zecchino d'Oro (Rai 1, 2006)
Che tempo che fa (Rai 1, 2017–19; Rai 2, since 2019)
Indietro tutta! 30 e l'ode (Rai 2, 2017)

Radio

Programmone (Radio 2, since 2015)

References

^ Francesco Merlo, Nino Frassica: nel mio nonsenso c'è tutta la veritàne, repubblica.it (in Italian)
^ Stefano Bartezzaghi, È tornato il frate di Frassica, abbattiamogli le mani, repubblica.it (in Italian)
^ Lancia, Enrico; Poppi, Roberto (2003). Dizionario del cinema italiano: Gli attori dal 1930 ai giorni nostri (in Italian). Gremese Editore. p. 75. ISBN 978-88-8440-269-1. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
^ Nino Frassica Archived 2017-08-11 at the Wayback Machine ovguide.com
^ The Mafia Kills Only in Summer (TV series) at IMDb

External links

Media related to Nino Frassica at Wikimedia Commons

Messina

History of Messina

Monuments and places

Personalities

Actors	Adolfo Celi Tano Cimarosa Maria Grazia Cucinotta Nino Frassica Massimo Mollica
Artists and designers	Girolamo Alibrandi Anna Maria Arduino Antonio Barbalonga Francesco Comande Antonello da Messina Giuseppe Migneco Giovanni Quagliata Filippo Juvarra Mariano Riccio Alonzo Rodriguez Giovanni Tuccari
Politicians, civil service, military	Giuseppe La Farina Gaetano Martino Giuseppe Natoli Luigi Rizzo
Musicians, composers	Lucia Aliberti Mario Aspa Filippo Bonaffino Gens
Religion	Eustochia Smeralda Calafato Annibale Maria Di Francia
Sports	Silvia Bosurgi Tony Cairoli Vincenzo Nibali Valerio Vermiglio
Researchers, academics	Aristocles of Messene Dicaearchus Caio Domenico Gallo Francesco Maurolico Agostino Scilla Giuseppe Seguenza Giuseppe Sergi