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Massimo Troisi (; 19 February 1953 – 4 June 1994) was an Italian actor, cabaret, comedian, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his works in the films I'm Starting back from Three (1981) and (1994), for which he was posthumously nominated for two Academy Awards. Nicknamed "the comedian of feelings",Chiacchiari Federico; Salvi Demetrio, Massimo Troisi. Il comico dei sentimenti, Sentieri Selvaggi, 2011. he is considered one of the most important actors of Italian theater and cinema. Daniele Bova, “Ricomincio da Tre”, ecco a voi Massimo Troisi, L'Unità, 22 novembre 2015
Trois's increasingly serious heart problems began in his teenage years, after he suffered from a bout of rheumatic fever. In 1976 he had to visit the United States for a heart valve operation, the expenses for which were paid with the help of his friends.
Troisi started his artistic career as a cabaret showman in 1972, as a member of the comic trio called "I Saraceni" ("The Saracens") and, later, "La Smorfia" (from the name of the "book of the numbers" traditionally used in Naples for lottery and tombola, but also meaning "the face", as in "to make a face"). His mates were De Caro and Arena. They gained national fame on the radio and increased it consistently from 1977 onwards eventually becoming TV stars with the shows Non Stop, La sberla (1978) and Luna Park (1979). Troisi soon gained the status of leader of the trio. He was noted for his use of facial mimicry and of apparently confused speech—in these he drew inspiration from such famous figures of Neapolitan comedy as Totò, and Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo.
Troisi starred opposite Roberto Benigni in Non ci resta che piangere (1984), in which they play two friends who are accidentally transported back in time to the 15th century; there they meet Leonardo da Vinci and, upon realising which age they are in, travel to Spain to try to stop Christopher Columbus from discovering the Americas.
After some small acting roles, in 1987 Troisi directed Le vie del Signore sono finite, set during the Fascist era. The film won a Silver Ribbon for best screenplay. In the following years, he starred alongside Marcello Mastroianni, in Ettore Scola's Splendor (1989), Che ora è? (1989, who earned him and Mastroianni the Volpi Cup for Best Actor) and Il viaggio di Capitan Fracassa (1990). His last film as director (also as screenwriter and actor) was Pensavo fosse amore, invece era un calesse (1991), again centering on the everyday difficulties of love between a man and a woman (portrayed by Francesca Neri).
Years before he had scheduled a heart transplant but did not proceed with it, telling Radford: "You know, I don’t really want this new heart. You know why. Because the heart is the centre of emotion, and an actor is a man of emotion. Who knows what kind of an actor I’m going to be with someone else’s heart inside of me."
Troisi was posthumously nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Writing for Il Postino, and was the sixth person to be posthumously nominated for an acting Academy Award. Earlier posthumous nominations were Jeanne Eagels, James Dean (twice), Spencer Tracy, Peter Finch (won) and Ralph Richardson. In 1996 he was also nominated for a BAFTA in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category. The film won Best Direction and Best Original Music categories
Pino Daniele worked on the soundtracks of most of his films. Eduardo De Filippo, the most prominent Italian dramatist of the 20th century with Luigi Pirandello, said he was "a comedian of the future, rooted in the past".
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