Lunadei was born in
Rome in 1938. His mother was a seamstress and his father a brick mason, and the young Lunadei first developed an interest in acting when at age five, his parents introduced him to the
cinema and
theater. The family struggled during
World War II, however, and his mother emigrated to
Buenos Aires,
Argentina, where Gianni arrived in 1950, followed by his father shortly afterward. He debuted in the
local theater in 1954 playing George in a local production of
Arthur Miller's
All My Sons, and was later cast in
Seán O'Casey's
The Shadow of a Gunman and
Anton Chekhov's
Platonov. His career on the stage flourished, and he worked as a resident actor in the
National Comedy for eleven years, and in the
General San Martín Theatre for six. Beyond the stage, he had a turn as
Count Dracula in a 1968
made-for-television special starring veteran
horror film actor
Narciso Ibáñez Menta. Among Lunadei's notable stage roles from this era include those in
Peter Weiss'
Marat/Sade,
Carlo Goldoni's
Servant of Two Masters, as well as the title role in
Pantaleon, a ''
commedia dell'arte'' work by Argentine playwright
Villanueva Cosse. This latter role won Lunadei the city of
Mar del Plata's "Star of the Sea" in 1975 with co-star
China Zorrilla. He earned a
Molière Award for this role, and won a second one in 1977. He married actress Stella Maris Lanzani, and they had four children. Lunadei ventured into
Argentine cinema in 1976 with a minor part in
Carlos Galettini's tragedy
Juan que reía (
Juan Who Once Laughed). He had a leading role in
Manuel Antín's
Allá lejos y hace tiempo (
Long Ago and Far Away, 1978); but in subsequent years he became known for portraying manic characters in
picaresque comedy films and on
television. Lunadei explained in a 1984 interview that his childhood dream had been to be a
clown. whose title referred to the
economic bubble and collapse caused by
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz's
financial deregulation policies of the late 1970s. Lunadei was cast by comedy writer
Juan Carlos Mesa in the
sitcom Mesa de noticias (
News Desk). The
prime time show, which premiered on
ATC in December 1983, was set in a struggling
network news program, where Lunadei played De La Nata, an obsequious correspondent who showered the hapless
programming director (Mesa) with compliments such as
"benemérito señor director, le pertenezco" ("I belong to you, my honorable director"), while sabotaging coworkers and dispensing ad hominem attacks such as
"infeliz!" ("loser!"/"wretch!") and his trademark interjection:
"SHAQ!" (typically with a chopping motion of the hand). The sitcom was a success and ran until New Year's Eve 1987, appealing to audiences of an unusually varied demographic. Lunadei returned to cinema in a 1987 lampoon of profiteering in the medical industry,
La clínica del Doctor Cureta, and in a 1988 film adaptation of cartoonist
Horacio Altuna'a
Las Puertitas del señor López. Lunadei earned a
Konex Award for lifetime achievement in comedy in 1991. Mesa himself expressed that "bringing back a hit such as that inevitably leads to criticism that it's somehow not the same, and it wouldn't be the same: Gianni is no longer here". ==References==