Umberto Simonetta (4 April 1926 – 25 August 1998) was an Italian playwright, writer and lyricist. He was described as "an unclassifiable artist" and "a wanderer between different genres". Born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Simonetta grew up in Switzerland where his father had been forced to move as an

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

. He started his career working in couple with Guglielmo Zucconi as a radio writer and a playwright. He wrote several novels, some of them adapted into films such as '' Normal Young Man'' by

Dino Risi Dino Risi (23 December 1916 – 7 June 2008) was an Italian film director. With Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Nanni Loy, and Ettore Scola, he was one of the masters of ''commedia all'italiana''. Biography Risi was born in Milan. He had an ...

and ''

I viaggiatori della sera ''I viaggiatori della sera'' is a 1979 Italy, Italian/Spain, Spanish Science fiction film, science fiction-drama film written and directed by Ugo Tognazzi. It is loosely based on a novel with the same name by Umberto Simonetta. Synopsis In an al ...

'' by

Ugo Tognazzi Ottavio "Ugo" Tognazzi (23 March 1922 – 27 October 1990) was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the most important faces of Italian comedy together with Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, Marcello Mastr ...

. He directed the Teatro Gerolamo in Milan from 1979 until its close in 1983. As a lyricist, he often collaborated with

Giorgio Gaber Giorgio Gaberscik (25 January 1939 – 1 January 2003), known as Giorgio Gaber (), was an Italian singer-songwriter, composer, actor, playwright, and musician. He was also an accomplished guitar player and author of one of the first rock songs ...

. In his later years Simonetta collaborated with the newspaper ''

Il Giornale (), known from its founding in 1974 until 1983 as (), is an Italian-language daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 28,933 in May 2023. In 2006, it was considered one of Italy's main national newspapers. History an ...

'' as a theatrical critic and was one of the screenwriters of the sitcom '' Nonno Felice''. He died of tumor.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simonetta, Umberto 1926 births Writers from Milan 1998 deaths Italian lyricists Italian television writers Italian radio writers 20th-century Italian novelists 20th-century Italian male writers Italian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Italian screenwriters Italian male television writers