Anecdotes

The first actor to win a Best Actor Oscar for a non-English speaking role.

After his movie La vie est belle (1997) received seven Academy Award nominations, he met the Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and said, after shaking his hand: "Now I have the Oscar in my hand!".

Federico Fellini considered him a genius

His father Luigi Benigni (1918-2004), who worked as a farmer, carpenter and bricklayer, was a prisoner in the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen between 1943 and 1945. Roberto used his stories as the basis for his film La vie est belle (1997). However, unlike Roberto's character in the film, Roberto's father was not of Jewish heritage.

He and Laurence Olivier are the only two actors to have directed themselves in Oscar winning performances.

Winning the Best Foreign Language Film category at the The 70th Annual Academy Awards (1998), he famously climbed on the back of the seat for his procession to the stage and applauded the audience. The following year, while announcing the nominees for the Best Actress Award, Billy Crystal appeared behind him with a large net to restrain him.

He was one of the most radical opponents to Silvio Berlusconi's government and policy in Italy.

He is the sixth actor in history to win the Oscar for Best Actor in a comedy after Clark Gable in New York - Miami (1934), James Stewart in Indiscrétions (1940), Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou (1965), Richard Dreyfuss in Adieu, je reste... (1977) and Jack Nicholson in Pour le pire et pour le meilleur (1997).

After leading a crowd of thousand in Rome, protesting against Silvio Berlusconi's government's decision to cut state arts funding by 35 percent, he hijacked the opening credits of Italy's most watched news show, removed his shirt to drape it over the anchorman's shoulders and announced "Berlusconi had resigned!" the next day (15 September 2005).

Also a respected poet, known for his poesia estemporanea, and singer-songwriter.

Is one of five performers to win an Oscar playing a character that spoke mostly in a foreign language. The other are Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Marion Cotillard and Benicio Del Toro.

Along with Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood, he is one of only eight men to receive Academy Award nominations for both Best Actor and Best Director for the same film: Welles for Citizen Kane (1941), Olivier for Hamlet (1948), Allen for Annie Hall (1977), Beatty for both Le ciel peut attendre (1978) and Reds (1981), Branagh for Henry V (1989), Costner for Danse avec les loups (1990), Eastwood for Impitoyable (1992) and Benigni for La vie est belle (1997).

Benigni met wife Nicoletta Braschi on the set of Tu me troubles (1983).

Doing a one man show based on the Italian poet Dante Alighieri throughout Europe (2007)

He joins Sylvester Stallone, Prince, Kevin Costner, William Shatner, and Tom Green as being the only actors to direct themselves in performances that would "win" them a Razzie Award for Worst Actor.

Was a supporter of the Italian Communist Party (PCI).

Left the seminary after two-thirds of Florence had been flooded by the Arno River (4 November 1966).

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival 1990

When the Ulivo party won the parliamentary elections, Benigni jumped on the stage and kissed Walter Veltroni, one of the party's candidates.

His mother Isolina Papini (1918-2004) worked as a fabric inspector.

Has his look-alike puppet in the French show Les Guignols de l'info (1988).

Was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (2 February 2007).

One of seven Italians to have been nominated for the Best Director Oscar. The others are Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Michelangelo Antonioni, Gillo Pontecorvo , Bernardo Bertolucci and Lina Wertmüller.

Attended a seminary in Florence, planning to become a priest.

Graduated from Instituto Tecnico Commericale Datini di Prato.

The first actor to win a Worst Actor Razzie for a non-English speaking role.

When he "won" the 2003 Razzie Award for Worst Actor in Pinocchio (2002), Razzies.com declared his win "By a Nose!", as he'd just barely beaten fellow nominee Steven Seagal in the film Mission Alcatraz (2002) by a mere few votes.

Sister: Bruna Benigni (textile worker), born 1945.

Sister: Albertina Benigni (flower shop owner), born 1947.

Works in theater and prepares performances on stage. (1997)

Sister: Anna Benigni (teacher's aide), born 1948.

Born on exactly the same date as fellow "Pink Panther" veteran Ted Wass (of "Blossom" and "Sheena" fame).