Comedian Francesco Nuti dies

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 12 - Former cabaret artist and film and TV comic and director Francesco Nuti died in Rome after a long illness at the age of 68 on Monday, his family said.
    Prato-born Nuti was best known for his TV work as part of the Giancattivi trio together with Alessandro Benvenuti and Athina Cenci, and for cult films like the 1982-3 triptych directed by Maurizio Ponzi, hree movies directed by Maurizio Ponzi: What a Ghostly Silence There Is Tonight (1982), The Pool Hustlers (1982), perhaps his biggest hit, and Son contento (1983).
    Starting in 1985, he began to direct his movies, scoring an immediate success with the films Casablanca, Casablanca and All the Fault of Paradise (1985), Stregati (1987), Caruso Pascoski, Son of a Pole (1988), Willy Signori e vengo da lontano (1990) and Women in Skirts (1991).
    The 1990s were however a period of decline for the Tuscan director, with poorly received movies such as OcchioPinocchio (1994), Mr. Fifteen Balls (1998), Io amo Andrea (2000) and Caruso, Zero for Conduct (2001).
    In the following years Nuti also started to suffer from depression and alcoholism, which were exacerbated by a severe fall in 2006.
    The accident caused Nuti a subdural hematoma that led to serious cerebral damage, leaving him unable to speak or move.
    In the following years, a few public appearances on Italian television publicly displayed his disabled condition, triggering both a powerful emotional response from Nuti's fans, and outrage for what was perceived as exploitation of the former director's suffering.
    On 21 September 2016, a second fall lead to Nuti being hospitalized in critical conditions again.
    Annuncing the news of his death Monday, his daughter Ginevra thanked everyone who had cared for her father in his final illness, and especially the staff of the Villa Vedre nursing home in Rome. (ANSA).