Francesco Nuti (17 May 1955 – 12 June 2023) was an Italian actor, film director and screenwriter. Nuti began his professional career as an actor in the late 1970s, when he took part in the cabaret group Giancattivi together with Alessandro Benvenuti and Athina Cenci. The group took part in some TV shows for RAI TV, and shot their first feature film, West of Paperino (1981), written and directed by Benvenuti. The following year Nuti abandoned the trio and began a solo career with three movies directed by Maurizio Ponzi. Starting in 1985, he began to direct his movies, scoring an immediate success with the films "Casablanca, Casablanca" and "All the Fault of Paradise" (1985), "Stregati" (1987), "Caruso Pascoski, Son of a Pole" (1988), "Willy Signori e vengo da lontano" (1989) and "Women in Skirts" (1991). The 1990s were however a period of decline for the Tuscan director, with unsuccessful movies such as OcchioPinocchio (1994), Mr. Fifteen Balls (1998), Io amo Andrea (2000) and Caruso, Zero for Conduct (2001). In the following years Nuti also started to suffer from depression and alcoholism. On 2 September 2006, following a severe fall from the the stairs of his home, he had serious cerebral damage, leaving him unable to speak or move. Nuti died on 12 June 2023, at the age of 68.
