Fred Buscaglione

Ferdinando "Fred" Buscaglione 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.

The son of a porter, 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 night clubs in Turin singing jazz and playing double bass and violin.