Deputy foreign minister Emanuela Del Re paid tribute to Italy's much-loved comedian, cinema and theatre actor Gigi Proietti, who died on Monday - his 80th birthday - days after suffering a major heart-attack.
"Farewell Gigi, a man of integrity, a great interpretor of the theatre, who synthesised and expressed society's dynamics, poised between tragedy and irony, in a world of make-believe that was never faked, as you loved to say. All the world's a stage, as Shakespeare wrote," Del Re tweeted."
"Unrivalled, eternal," the tweet ended.
Italy's president Sergio Mattarella earlier led tributes to Proietti, who came from Rome.
"A multifaceted, versatile actor, director, organizer, voice-over actor, mentor to generations of actors and natural heir to Ettore Petrolini, he was the genuine expression of the Roman spirit," Mattarella said in a statement.
Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte tweeted that Proietti's death "saddens the whole country", hailing him as "a giant of our culture".
"Today a theatrical genius has left us, someone who knew how to amuse and to move millions of Italians. His death saddens the whole country," Conte's tweet went on.
Best-known for his comedy work, Proietti was the director of the Globe Theatre, a reconstruction of Shakespeare's theatre in the Italian capital.
