Alighiero Noschese

The best Italian impersonator. He was born in Naples, Campania, Italy. His father was a law office bearer, he had Polish ancestors and a German grandmother. After Law Studies and an unsuccessful attempt to work as journalist, he debuted for Italian radio as a voice imitator. He made some theatre appearances performing parodies of singers and politicians and he became popular with the Italian television shows "Doppia Coppia" (1969) and "Formula Due" (1973). He has been nicknamed "thief of souls" by the great director Federico Fellini for his extraordinary capability to imitate not only the voice of characters, but also their physical features and attitudes. In an interview just before is death, he listed a total of 1156 voices he had imitated in his career. He sank into a deep depression after the divorce of his beloved wife. On December 3rd, 1979, Noschese committed suicide by shooting himself while under care for clinical depression in Rome, at the age of 47.