Actor and director Oreste Lionello, who lent his distinctive voice to dub Woody Allen in Italian, has died after a long illness. He was 81.
Aside from Allen, Lionello also dubbed characters played by Peter Sellers, Groucho Marx, Jerry Lewis, Marty Feldman and Charlie Chaplin.
A versatile showman, Lionello was most at home on the stage and for some 40 years he was one of the lead stars at Rome's Bagaglino cabaret where he impersonated and poked fun at a host of political figures, including veteran Christian Democrat statesman Giulio Andreotti and Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who were often in the audience to laugh at themselves.
Lionello, who was born in Greece, began his career in the early 1950s as an actor and a gag writer for cabaret.
Aside from dubbing films he also appeared in films in character roles and was a frequent guest on TV variety shows, where he often recreated his cabaret skits.
