Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi (pronounced [betˈtiːno ˈkraksi]) (24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, head of the Italian Socialist Party from 1976 to 1993, the first socialist President of the Council of Ministers of Italy from 1983 to 1987.

Craxi led the 2nd longest-lived government of Italy during the republican era (after the 2nd Silvio Berlusconi cabinet), and had strong influence in Italian politics throughout the eighties; for some time, he was a close ally of two key figures of Christian Democracy, Giulio Andreotti and Arnaldo Forlani, in a loose cross-party alliance often dubbed CAF (from the first letter of the surname Craxi-Andreotti-Forlani). Craxi had a firm grasp on a party previously troubled by factionalism, and tried to distance it from the communists and to bring it closer to Christian Democrats and other parties; his objective was to create an Italian version of European reformist socialist parties, like the German SPD or the French Socialist Party. The Italian Socialist Party reached its post-war apex when it increased its share of votes in the general election of 1987. However, the Italian Socialist Party never outgrew the much larger Italian Communist Party, whose highly charismatic leader, Enrico Berlinguer, was a fierce adversary of Craxi's policies throughout the years.

Carlo Verdone (born 17 November 1950) is an Italian actor, screenwriter and film director.

Carlo Verdone was born in Rome to Mario Verdone, an important Italian film critic, and during his youth he earned a degree in Modern Literature at Sapienza University of Rome and a degree in Film Direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. During 1970s he started a television career highlighting his varied comic style.

Verdone made his debut as director in 1980 with the movie Fun is beautiful, in which he played three different characters. He used the same formula of the first work in 1981, when he directed Bianco, rosso e Verdone, a funny movie about three men during the election day. The movie, produced by Sergio Leone, was a great success in Italy, thanks to his brilliant comic energy and to his odd characters. Carlo Verdone, in a long directing career, has refined very well his style, using very much the typical standard of the commedia all'italiana and paying attention to social themes and to pondering stories. In 2005 he took part in the Italian blockbuster romantic comedy named Manuale d'amore, and in the sequels named Manuale d'amore 2 - Capitoli successivi (2007) and Manuale d'amore 3 (2011), both directed by Giovanni Veronesi.

Alberto Sordi, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (June 15, 1920 – February 25, 2003) was an Italian actor. He was also a film director and the dubbing voice of Oliver Hardy in the Italian version of the Laurel & Hardy films.

Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician, Sordi enrolled in Milan's dramatic arts academy but was kicked out because of his thick Roman accent. In the meantime he studied to be an opera singer, a bass. It was his accent and voice that would later prove to be his trademark.

In a career that spanned seven decades, Sordi established himself as an icon of Italian cinema with his representative skills at both comedy and light drama. His movie career began in the late 1930s with bit parts and secondary characters in wartime movies. After the war he began working as a dubber for the Italian versions of Laurel and Hardy shorts, voicing Oliver Hardy. Early roles included Fellini's The White Sheik in 1952, Fellini's I vitelloni (1953), a movie about young slackers, in which he plays a weak, effeminate immature loafer and a starring role in Lo scapolo (The Bachelor) playing a single man trying to find love. In 1959 he appeared in Monicelli's The Great War, considered by many critics and film historians to be one of the best Italian comedies. The Hollywood Foreign Press recognized his abilities when he was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Il diavolo (1963). Sordi acted alongside Britain’s David Niven in the World War II comedy The Best of Enemies and in 1965 he was in another highly regarded comedy, I complessi (Complexes).

Sandra Milo (Elena Liliana Greco) (born 11 March 1935 Tunis) is an Italian actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in Federico Fellini's 8½ and Juliet of the Spirits, winning a Silver Ribbon best supporting actress award for each film.

She made her film debut alongside Alberto Sordi in The Bachelor (1955). Her first major role came in 1959 thanks to the producer Moris Ergas, in Il generale della Rovere, directed by Roberto Rossellini. She appeared in his Vanina Vanini (1961), but Rossellini's career was cut short after the film received harsh criticism at the Venice Festival.

After she got married, she retired from her acting career. Until discovered by Fellini, Milo had mostly performed in comedies and melodramas. Although she was reluctant to make a comeback, Fellini convinced her to take on the role of the sexy, lightheaded mistress opposite Marcello Mastroianni in 8½. The movie, which won universal acclaim, failed to change the public perception of her and although she was cast in Juliet of the Spirits (1965), most of her following endeavors were second-rate films.