Francesco Pannofino

Francesco Pannofino — Biography

Born in Pieve di Teco on 14 November 1958 and raised from childhood in Rome, Francesco Pannofino began his career on stage in the late 1970s before moving into film and television acting from the mid-1990s, including a role as real-life mob boss Tommaso Buscetta in Giovanni Falcone – L'uomo che sfidò Cosa Nostra. He is best known on screen for playing the frustrated TV director René Ferretti in the satirical series Boris, to which he also contributed his own song Ciak.

Considered one of the leading figures of Italy's fifth generation of dubbing artists, Pannofino is the official Italian voice of George Clooney and Denzel Washington, and has also dubbed actors including Kurt Russell, Antonio Banderas, Tom Hanks and Daniel Day-Lewis. His Italian-language roles include Rubeus Hagrid across the Harry Potter films, the Green Goblin in the Spider-Man trilogy, Gil Grissom in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Tom Hanks's title role in Forrest Gump, alongside animated parts such as Lrrr in Futurama.