ROME (AFP) ??” Italian actor Nino Manfredi has died in Rome at the age of 83 Italy's Ansa novels agency reported.

ROME (AFP) ??” Italian actor Nino Manfredi has died in Rome at the age of 83 Italy's Ansa novels agency reported.

Manfredi, a prolific actor, scriptwriter and director, had been in extremely poor health since suffering a blow in July 2003.

Born upon March 22, 1921, in Castro dei Volsci near Rome he was the last in a cluster of extremely popular Italian character actors that included Toto, Vittorio Gassman and Alberto Sordi. Sordi died in February 2003 shortly before his 83rd birthday.

Manfredi obtained a stage in law before enrolling in Italy's Academy of Dramatic Arts. When he left in 1947 he joined Gassman's theatre company and made his theatre first attempt at the Piccolo Theatre in Milan and Rome

His film career began dubbing the voices of foreign actors and in 1949 he obtained a minor part in Mario Sequi's "Monastero di Santa Chiara". It took another