Don Novello (born January 1, 1943) is an American writer, film director, producer, actor, singer, and comedian. Novello is best known for his work on NBC's Saturday Night Live, from 1977 until 1980, and again in 1985 & 1986, often as the character "Father Guido Sarducci". Novello has appeared as "Sarducci" on many television shows since then, including Married... with Children, Blossom, It's Garry Shandling's Show, Unhappily Ever After, Square Pegs and The Colbert Report.

Novello was born in Lorain, Ohio. His father was a physician. He is of Italian and Irish descent. In 1961, he graduated from Lorain High School. He graduated from the University of Dayton. In 1965, he graduated from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, AZ.^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1960s, Novello worked as an advertising copywriter for Leo Burnett in Chicago.

Don Novello created the Father Guido Sarducci character in 1973 after finding a monsignor's outfit for $7.50 at a St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop. Adding sunglasses, a broom mustache, cigarette and a thick Italian accent, Sarducci became popular in a San Francisco nightclub. Sarducci appeared on San Francisco Channel 20's Chicken Little Comedy Show, and comic David Steinberg was watching. Steinberg hired Novello as a writer for a TV show that never aired, but he also introduced Novello to Tommy and Dick Smothers, and they hired Novello, too. Novello performed on The Smothers Brothers Show in 1975, appearing as Sarducci.

Father Guido Sarducci is a fictional character made famous by American comedian Don Novello. Sarducci, a chain-smoking priest with tinted eyeglasses, works in the United States as gossip columnist and rock critic for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano (sometimes mentioned as The Vatican Enquirer, a take-off of the tabloid The National Enquirer).

Novello created the character in 1973, after he purchased the outfit (consisting of big floppy black hat, white clerical collar, and a long, red-trimmed black coat with cape) for $7.50 at a St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. The character was featured in 1970s cartoons by underground cartoonists Dave Sheridan and Fred Schrier, appearing in person in the early 1970s on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and later in the 1975 Smothers Brothers TV show. His most prominent appearance was on Saturday Night Live in the late 1970s, during which time Novello was also a writer for the show. In the late 1970s, Father Guido Sarducci was featured on radio commercials for High Times magazine where he offered to perform blessings for a fee.

Donald Benjamin Lurio, better known with his stage name of Don Lurio (Born 15 November 1929 in New York - died 26 January 2003 in Rome) was an American-born Italian dancer, choreographer and presenter for the RAI, the Italian television.

Born in the United States by Italian ancestors, operated a dance studio on Broadway with Bob Fosse and Jack Cole , then toured Europe before arriving in Italy in 1957.

Openly gay (considered scandalous given the morals of the time), it took until 1961 to establish himself on Italian Television.

Had a long term relationship with Livio Costagli , who died in 1994 at the age of 44 years from complications caused by the AIDS virus.

He appeared in several Italian films of the 1960s and 1970s. He also appeared in a handful of British films.

In 1970 he choreograped the interval act for the Eurovision Song Contest (The Don Lurio Dancers).

He died in 2003 from respiratory failure.

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