Ele D'Artagnan
Ele D'Artagnan was born Michele Lombardi-Toscanini in Venice, Italy, on November 13, 1911. At an early age, he shows an interest in music and the theatre. D'Artagnan also dabbles in painting and drawing; his first, "Zucca," a watercolor, dates back to 1939. 
After appearing as an extra in films during the 1940s, he establishes himself as a 'generic extra' and from that point forward appears in many films and on television. In 1955 he meets Federico Fellini and gets a role in Il Bidone, with Giulietta Masina. Fellini inserts D'Artagnan into his album of bizarre and dreamlike characters. Despite his poverty, D'Artagnan is always elegantly dressed and frequents Rome's most fashionable nightspots.
By 1962 is dolce vita turns bitter. He is arrested and imprisioned for slander and libel in Rome - upon his release he lives on the streets. He occasionally sells small drawings of Felliniesque masks. Once again, D'Artagnan turns to Fellini for help. He gets a part in the "Toby Dammit" episode in the film Tre Passi nel Delirio. Without work, he immerses himself in his painting. This is a prolific period, but, incredibly, he refuses to sell his paintings. . He made paintings on all sorts of found materials from match book covers, packaging, and discarded wood. Although small in scale each piece had a large internal landscape of fantasical life. D'Artagnan's paintings evolved to completion after numerous reworkings with watercolor, oil, enamel, crayon, pencil and pen. For D'Artagnan the works are living creatures, visions of his dreams. To sell them would be to betray and disown them.
After a series of bad luck, D'Artagnan moves from house to house and frequently stays at public and religious dormitories. In 1971 his drawings begin to be appreciated in Roman artistic circles, although he does not want to sell them.
Once again in dire straights, he contacts Fellini, and gets a role in Amarcord. During the filming, Fellini learns of D'Artagnan's sad financial situation and promises him more work - and later offers him a role in Casanova. It is a period of great productivity for D'Artagnan. Fellini calls again, giving him work in La Città delle donne in 1979.
By August 1983, he is homeless again. He says, for the first time, that his paintings are not to be shown in Italy, the country that was the origin of all his suffering.. On October 13, D'Artagnan is found near death in Via Bezzi next to Viale Trastevere and dies on October 23, 1984. He was thrown into a common grave in the Prima Porta Cemetery.
Condensed from essay by: PIETRO GALLINA