Fred Buscaglione
Ferdinando "Fred" Buscaglione (Italian pronunciation: [ˈfrɛd buskaʎˈʎoːne]; 23 November 1921 – 3 February 1960) was an Italian singer and actor who became very popular in the late 1950s. His public persona – the character he played both in his songs and his movies – was of a humorous mobster with a penchant for whisky and women.
Also recorded as Ferdinando Buscaglione
Fred Buscaglione

Fénix Cooperativa Cinematográfica / I.C.M. Roma · Public domain
- Full name
- Ferdinando Buscaglione.
- Born
- 1921. · Turin.
- Died
- 1960. · Rome.
- Nationality
- Italy and Kingdom of Italy.
- Occupation
- singer-songwriter, actor, singer and musician.
- Fields
- middle of the road.
- Languages
- Italian.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Ferdinando "Fred" Buscaglione (Italian pronunciation: [ˈfrɛd buskaʎˈʎoːne]; 23 November 1921 – 3 February 1960) was an Italian singer and actor who became very popular in the late 1950s. His public persona – the character he played both in his songs and his movies – was of a humorous mobster with a penchant for whisky and women.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Fred Buscaglione (1921–1960) was an Italian and Italian actor, jazz musician and musician, among other activities. Born Ferdinando Buscaglione in Turin, the actor died in Rome. Fred Buscaglione was a member of Fred Buscaglione e i suoi Asternovas.
Genres include middle of the road. Languages used include Italian.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Fred Buscaglione. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
original value insufficient · checked 25 September 2026
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q2123731 · wikipedia · Fred Buscaglione
In this article
Biography
Biography
Ferdinando Buscaglione was born in Turin, Italy on 23 November 1921. The father was a painter and the mother a porter and piano teacher, both coming from Graglia, his great passion for music appeared at a very young age. When he was 11, his parents enrolled him at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin. During his teen years, he performed at nightclubs in Turin singing jazz and playing double bass and violin. During World War II, he was incarcerated in an American internment camp in Sardinia. His musical talent was apparent and he was allowed to join the orchestra of the allied radio station of Cagliari. This permitted Buscaglione to continue to make music and to experiment with new sounds and rhythms coming from the U.S. (Most foreign music had been officially forbidden by the Italian Fascist regime.) After the war, Buscaglione returned to Turin and went to live in Via Eusebio Bava 26 bis and resumed working as a musician for various bands. He then formed his own group, the Asternovas. During a tour in Switzerland in 1949 he met and married the half-German half-Moroccan entertainer Fatima Robin's. In the meantime he was gradually creating his public character, inspired by Clark Gable and Mickey Spillane's gangsters. His friend Leo Chiosso was a lyricist who wrote many of his songs. Together they wrote the hits that brought nationwide fame to Buscaglione: Che bambola (Whatta babe!), Teresa non sparare (Theresa, don't shoot!), Eri piccola così (You were small like that), Guarda che luna (Look, What A (beautiful) Moon), Love in Portofino, Porfirio Villarosa (a caricature of Porfirio Rubirosa), Whisky facile (Easy Whiskey). After perfecting his routine in night clubs and theatres he started recording his songs in 1955; the first single (a shellac 78 rpm record containing 'Che bambola' and 'Giacomino') sold 1,000,000 copies with close to no promotion, propelling him to a degree of fame he never considered possible. By the end of the 1950s, Buscaglione was one of Italy's most wanted entertainers. He appeared in advertising campaigns, on television, and in movies. At 38 years of age, he was killed in a car accident when his lilac Ford Thunderbird collided with a truck Lancia Esatau in the early hours before dawn in Rome. Immediately brought to the hospital in a bus flagged down by the truck driver, he arrived there too late. Only hours earlier he had dinner with some friends at a restaurant in Rome and met future Italian pop diva Mina Mazzini who made her Sanremo Music Festival debut earlier. The two discussed a future collaboration that sadly never materialized. Tens of thousands people attended his funeral in Turin on 6 February 1960. He is buried in the Cimitero Monumentale. Alongside his legacy, in songs and movies, Buscaglione deserves mention for having encouraged musicians and singers from the newer generation (the one influenced by the earliest forms of rock and roll) to stand up against the conservative producers and discographers of the time, demanding recognition for their art and their style. In this role, he proved instrumental in the rise of the "yellers" scene which from the early 60s started to revolutionize the Italian popular music panorama.
Filmography
Filmography
Poveri milionari (1959) I ladri (1959) Guardatele ma non toccatele (1959) Noi siamo due evasi (1959) Il moralista (1959) I ragazzi del Juke-Box (1959) La duchessa di Santa Lucia (1959) La cento chilometri (1959) Noi duri (1960) Tu che ne dici? (1960)

frame dal film I ragazzi del juke-box (1959)
Lucio Fulci / Carlo Montuori · Italian film I ragazzi del juke-box (1959)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1960
Fred Buscaglione died at Rome.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Turin.
Birth place
Rome.
Death place
Discography
Fred Buscaglione & i suoi Asternovas – Cetra, LPA 42 (1956) Fred Buscaglione & i suoi Asternovas – Cetra, LPA 47 (1956) Le nuove canzoni di Fred Buscaglione – Cetra, LPA 92 (1957) Balliamo con Fred Buscaglione – Cetra, LPA 93 (1957) Fred Buscaglione & i suoi Asternovas – Cetra, LPA 108 (1958) Fred Buscaglione & i suoi Asternovas - Cetra, LP16 N. 3 (1958) 16 successi di Fred Buscaglione – Cetra, LPB 35007 (1959) Fred Buscaglione & i suoi Asternovas - Cetra, LP16 N. 5 (1959) Ricordo di Fred – Fonit Cetra, LPF 1 (1960)
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,307 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Fred BertelmannPerson
- Fred BöhlerPerson
- Fred BongustoPerson
- Fred BracefulPerson
- Fred CateroPerson
- Fred ChichinPerson
- Fred ColePerson
- Fred De PalmaPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Fred Buscaglione?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.