Dario Fo's Real Name: Dario Luigi Angelo Fo

Quick answer: Dario Fo's real name was Dario Luigi Angelo Fo. He was born on March 24, 1926, in Sangiano (Leggiuno area), Italy, and died on October 13, 2016. He won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Birth name and formation

Dario Luigi Angelo Fo was born March 24, 1926, near Lago Maggiore to Felice Fo, a socialist railway stationmaster and amateur actor, and Pina Rota. Childhood storytelling from fishermen, glass-blowers, and his maternal grandfather shaped his satirical narrative style. He studied at Brera Academy and architecture at the Milan Polytechnic but left to pursue performance and design (Nobel Prize biographical; LOC name authority; Britannica).

He used his birth names professionally; "Dario Fo" is the standard short form of Dario Luigi Angelo Fo.

Theatre with Franca Rame

Fo met actress Franca Rame in 1951; they married in 1954 and built the Fo-Rame company, with Fo as playwright, actor, director, and designer and Rame as collaborator, leading actress, and administrator. Early satirical revues faced censorship. Breakthrough boulevard hits such as Gli arcangeli non giocano a flipper (1959–60) preceded a turn to independent, worker-oriented theatre in 1968 with Nuova Scena and later La Comune (Nobel biographical).

Mistero buffo (1969 onward)—solo reconstructions of medieval jester texts—became his signature piece, performed thousands of times worldwide. Other widely translated works include Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can't Pay? Won't Pay! On March 8, 1973, Franca Rame was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by fascists in an attack linked to the couple's activism; she later returned to the stage and co-authored women's monologues such as Female Parts (Nobel biographical).

Nobel Prize and later years

The Swedish Academy awarded Fo the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature for emulating "the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden" (Nobel facts). He also directed opera (including Rossini at major European houses) and returned periodically to Italian television after long bans. Fo died on October 13, 2016 (Nobel biographical addendum).

Mistero Buffo / Accidental Death of an Anarchist published play text Nobel lecture / Fo collected plays anthology biography of Dario Fo and Franca Rame