Biography
Tiberio Murgia (5 February 1929 – 20 August 2010) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1958 and 2009. Born into a humble family, Murgia began working as a laborer from an early age. At the age of twenty he was already a peddler for l'Unità, the newspaper of the Italian Communist Party. The managing directors of the local branch of the party recognized particular political skills in him and send him to the National School for the party leaders in Frattocchie in the province of Rome.
After his return, six months later, he became the Secretary of the Young Communist League and married. After some time, however, Murgia began to entertain a relationship with a fellow party member, who was also married. Murgia was then expelled because of this clandestine affair.
Murgia then emigrated to Marcinelle, in Belgium, to work at the Bois du Cazier coalmine which had several thousands of Italian workers as miners, pursuant to the Italian Belgian Protocol of 20 June 1946. There also Murgia established a relationship with the wife of a Belgian coworker and escaped death that fatal night of the Marcinelle mining disaster, in which a gas explosion killed all the miners on his shift, including the woman's husband. Murgia later claimed, although some doubt his story, that he had been feigning illness in order to obtain sick leave so that he could spend the night with the woman.
Murgia returned to his hometown, Oristano, but was forced to emigrate to Rome in order to escape the wrath of the family of another young woman which he wooed despite both of them being already married. In Rome he began working as a dishwasher in a restaurant in the city center (Il re degli amici, the king of friends) until he was noticed by an assistant of the director Mario Monicelli, who invited him to the studio for an audition, after which he was given the part of "Ferribote"—a corruption of the English term "ferry boat", referring to the ferry that connects Sicily to the mainland—an extremely jealous and possessive Sicilian immigrant. Since Murgia was Sardinian, not Sicilian, his lines were dubbed by another actor.
The movie was originally calledLe Madame—-slang for "policeman"—before censors required the film to be retitled I soliti ignoti, or The Usual Unknown, released in the US as Big Deal on Madonna Street. As a result, Murgia did not even know the film in which he starred was already in the theatres. He had found himself a job at a construction site at Ponte Milvio, when the production team miraculously tracked him down to give him a contract and an advance of ten million lire.
Following the success of Monicelli's film, Murgia later acted in around 100 films and television productions over the next 40 years. Murgia continued to portray the caricatured stereotype of a Sicilian, his eyes often half closed and his eyebrows perennially arched and bushy, his head slightly turned backwards in the satirical representation of a wary and stubborn Sicilian; others dubbed his lines to provide them with Sicilian cadence. His films run the gamut from Commedia all'italiana to genre films, especially Italian sex comedy and musicarelli.
At the end of 2004 the actor published his autobiography I solito ignoto, (The Usual Unknown), written with the collaboration of the journalist Sergio Sciarra. The release of the book returned him to the limelight.
Suffering from Alzheimer's for some time, Murgia died in a nursing home in Tolfa on 20 August 2010, the last survivor of the male protagonists of I soliti ignoti. In 2012 the documentary L'insolito ignoto-Vita acrobatica (The Unusual Unknown-An Acrobatic Life) was made, which traces the life of the actor and includes an unpublished interview.
Filmography
all 92
Movies 91
TV Shows 1
self 1
À la recherche de... Pierre Richard (2017)
Chi nasce tondo... (2008)
E guardo il mondo da un oblò (2007)
Leone e Giampiero (2006)
Un giudice di rispetto (2000)
Ribelli per caso (2000)
L'amico di Wang (1997)
Honey Sweet Love (1996)
Italian Restaurant (1994)
Breath of Life (1990)
Il ragazzo del Pony Express (1986)
Big Deal on Madonna Street 20 Years Later (1985)
Special Features: Handsome (1983)
Lady Football (1983)
Same Sea, Same Beach (1983)
Attila flagello di Dio (1982)
Grand Hotel Excelsior (1982)
Snow White and 7 Wise Men (1982)
Vigili e vigilesse (1982)
Pierino the Pest to the Rescue (1982)
Madly in Love (1981)
Umbrella Coup (1980)
La liceale, il diavolo e l'acquasanta (1979)
L'albero della maldicenza (1978)
The Soldier with Great Maneuvers (1978)
Quando c'era lui... caro lei! (1978)
The Nurse on a Military Tour (1977)
For the Love of Poppea (1977)
The Virgo, the Taurus and the Capricorn (1977)
The Young Bride (1976)
Taxi Love - Servizio per signora (1976)
Il gatto mammone (1975)
La commessa (1975)
I 7 magnifici cornuti (1974)
Tales of Erotica (1973)
Il Figlioccio del padrino (1973)
Le notti peccaminose di Pietro l'Aretino (1972)
Even If I Wanted to Work, What Do I Do? (1972)
Naughty Nun (1972)
I due assi del guantone (1971)
Ma che musica maestro (1971)
Judge Roy Bean (1971)
I due maghi del pallone (1970)
The One Man Band (1970)
Il divorzio (1970)
Virgin Merchants (1969)
The Girl with a Pistol (1968)
Sunstroke (1968)
Rick and John, Conquerors of the West (1967)
Io non protesto, io amo (1967)
The Saint Lies in Wait (1966)
After the Fox (1966)
L'homme de Marrakech (1966)
Three Nights of Love (1964)
Il treno del sabato (1964)
Follie d'estate (1963)
Canzoni... in bikini (1963)
Divorzio alla siciliana (1963)
The Shortest Day (1963)
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)
Beach Casanova (1962)
Nerone '71 (1962)
Il mio amico Benito (1962)
Pesci d'oro e bikini d'argento (1961)
I soliti rapinatori a Milano (1961)
Holidays at Silver Bay (1961)
Mariti a congresso (1961)
Maurizio, Peppino e le indossatrici (1961)
Bellezze sulla spiaggia (1961)
Rocco e le sorelle (1961)
Mina... fuori la guardia (1961)
L'onorata società (1961)
La ragazza sotto il lenzuolo (1961)
Cacciatori di dote (1961)
Ferragosto in Bikini (1960)
Fontana di Trevi (1960)
I teddy boys della canzone (1960)
Genitori in blue-jeans (1960)
I baccanali di Tiberio (1960)
A qualcuna piace calvo (1959)
Fiasco in Milan (1959)
Juke Box - Screams of Love (1959)
Terror of Oklahoma (1959)
The Great War (1959)
La cento chilometri (1959)
The Maids (1959)
Riff Raff Girls (1959)
Wild Cats on the Beach (1959)
Il raccomandato di ferro (1959)
Men and Noblemen (1959)
Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)
L'insolito ignoto - Vita acrobatica di Tiberio Murgia
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Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1929-02-05
Deathday2010-08-20 (81 years old)
Birth PlaceOristano, Italy
CitizenshipsKingdom of Italy, Italy
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