Lorenzo Giovanni (Renzo) Arbore (Italian pronunciation: [ˈrɛntso ˈarbore]; born June 24, 1937 in Foggia) is an Italian TV host, showman, singer, musician, film actor and film director.

Arbore became nationally recognized as radio anchor man, together with Gianni Boncompagni, in the late 1960s, with shows such as Bandiera gialla (1965), Per voi giovani (1967), Alto Gradimento (1970), increasingly marked by their ironical approach which later became one of their brands. He debuted in Italian television with Speciale per voi (1969–1970), which included debates about singers of that age. His first great TV success was the surreal L'altra domenica ("The Other Sunday", 1976–1979), in which he launched numerous comedians including Mario Marenco, Isabella Rossellini and Roberto Benigni. Also very successful were Quelli della notte (1985), with Nino Frassica, Riccardo Pazzaglia, Maurizio Ferrini, and Roberto D'Agostino, and Indietro tutta!(1988), again with Frassica, which established Arbore as one of the most intelligent and cult figures of Italian televisions.

Mariangela Melato (born 18 September 1941) is an Italian actress.

Melato was born in Milan and studied at the Milan Theatre Academy. A striking, blonde actress, she began her stage career in the early 1960s and rose to fame after delivering powerful performances for a number of notable Italian stage directors such as Dario Fo, Luchino Visconti and Luca Ronconi.

Her cinematic debut came in 1969 with Pupi Avati's Thomas e gli indemoniati and Melato would continue to deliver memorable performances in the 1970s and grew to become a highly respected leading lady of many acclaimed and award-winning Italian films. Her memorable early film roles include the school teacher in Nino Manfredi's comedy Between Miracles (1971) and the female leads in Elio Petri's The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971) and Vittorio De Sica's Lo chiameremo Andrea (We'll Call Him Andrew, 1972).

Melato received much praise for her role as Giancarlo Giannini's Milanese mistress in The Seduction of Mimi (1972), directed by Lina Wertmüller. This was to be the start of a very successful working relationship with Wertmüller, who also cast Melato and Giannini as the leads in her next film, Love and Anarchy (1973), in which Melato plays an anarchic prostitute. The popular duo of Melato and Giannini were then paired in a third film by Wertmüller; Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August (1974). Melato's critically acclaimed comedic performance in this film as a spoiled, unsympathetic aristocrat is one of her most internationally known roles.

Luciano De Crescenzo (Italian pronunciation: [luˈtʃano de kreʃˈʃɛntso]; born 18 August 1928) is an Italian writer, film actor, director and engineer.

Born in Naples, he graduated in engineering and worked for IBM Italy until 1976, when he published the bestseller Così parlò Bellavista (Thus Spoke Bellavista), a collection of facts and anecdotes about his city which sold 600,000 copies in Italy and was translated into numerous languages. In 1980 he debuted as actor in Il pap'occhio, under the direction of his friend Renzo Arbore, together with Roberto Benigni.

In 1984 he directed the successful movie adaptation of Così parlò Bellavista (in which he also played the main protagonist), followed by Il mistero di Bellavista in 1985. In 1995 he wrote and directed Croce e delizia, featuring Teo Teocoli and Isabella Rossellini.

In the meantime he published a long series of books, including novels and popularizations of philosophy. For his work in the field of Greek philosophy he received honorary citizenship of Athens in 1994.