{{Short description|Italian playwright, writer and lyricist}}

{{Infobox person | name = Umberto Simonetta | image = Umberto_Simonetta_no free.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Simonetta in 1984 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1926|04|4|df=yes}} | birth_place =Milan, Italy | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1998|08|25|1926|04|4}} | death_place = Milan, Italy | occupation = Playwright, writer, lyricist | years_active = | spouse = | children = | relatives = }}'''Umberto Simonetta''' (4 April 1926 – 25 August 1998) was an Italian playwright, writer and lyricist. He was described as "an unclassifiable artist" and "a wanderer between different genres".<ref name="corr">{{cite news|last1=Righetti|first1=Donata|title=Umberto Simonetta, vagabondo nel cuore di Milano|url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1998/agosto/25/Umberto_Simonetta_vagabondo_nel_cuore_co_0_9808256445.shtml|accessdate=26 December 2015|work=Corriere della Sera|date=25 August 1998}}</ref>

Born in Milan, Simonetta grew up in Switzerland where his father had been forced to move as an anti-fascist.<ref name="corr"/>

He started his career working in couple with Guglielmo Zucconi as a radio writer and a playwright.<ref name="corr"/><ref name="repu">{{cite news|last1=Redazione|title=Morto Simonetta critico e scrittore|url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1998/08/25/morto-simonetta-critico-scrittore.html?ref=search|accessdate=26 December 2015|work=La Repubblica|date=25 August 1998}}</ref> He wrote several novels, some of them adapted into films such as ''Normal Young Man'' by Dino Risi and ''I viaggiatori della sera'' by Ugo Tognazzi.<ref name=Mereghetti>{{cite book|last=Paolo Mereghetti|title=Il Mereghetti - Dizionario dei film|date=2010 |publisher=B.C. Dalai Editore, 2010|isbn=978-8860736260}}</ref> He directed the Teatro Gerolamo in Milan from 1979 until its close in 1983.<ref name="corr"/><ref name="repu"/> As a lyricist, he often collaborated with Giorgio Gaber.<ref name="corr"/><ref name="repu"/>

In his later years Simonetta collaborated with the newspaper ''Il Giornale'' as a theatrical critic and was one of the screenwriters of the sitcom ''Nonno Felice''.<ref name="repu"/> He died of tumor.<ref name="corr"/>

== References == {{Reflist}} == External links ==

* {{IMDb name|0800594}} * {{discogs artist|Umberto Simonetta}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simonetta, Umberto}} Category:1926 births Category:Writers from Milan Category:1998 deaths Category:Italian lyricists Category:Italian television writers Category:Italian radio writers Category:20th-century Italian novelists Category:20th-century Italian male writers Category:Italian dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century Italian screenwriters Category:Italian male television writers