Umberto Simonetta

{{Short description|Italian playwright, writer and lyricist}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Umberto Simonetta

| image = Umberto_Simonetta_no free.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption = Simonetta in 1984

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|04|4|df=yes}}

| birth_place =Milan, Italy

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1998|08|25|1926|04|4}}

| death_place = Milan, Italy

| occupation = Playwright, writer, lyricist

| years_active =

| spouse =

| children =

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}}Umberto Simonetta (4 April 1926 – 25 August 1998) was an Italian playwright, writer and lyricist. He was described as "an unclassifiable artist" and "a wanderer between different genres".{{cite news|last1=Righetti|first1=Donata|title=Umberto Simonetta, vagabondo nel cuore di Milano|url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1998/agosto/25/Umberto_Simonetta_vagabondo_nel_cuore_co_0_9808256445.shtml|accessdate=26 December 2015|work=Corriere della Sera|date=25 August 1998}}

Born in Milan, Simonetta grew up in Switzerland where his father had been forced to move as an anti-fascist.

He started his career working in couple with Guglielmo Zucconi as a radio writer and a playwright.{{cite news|last1=Redazione|title=Morto Simonetta critico e scrittore|url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1998/08/25/morto-simonetta-critico-scrittore.html?ref=search|accessdate=26 December 2015|work=La Repubblica|date=25 August 1998}} He wrote several novels, some of them adapted into films such as Normal Young Man by Dino Risi and I viaggiatori della sera by Ugo Tognazzi.{{cite book|last=Paolo Mereghetti|title=Il Mereghetti - Dizionario dei film|date=2010 |publisher=B.C. Dalai Editore, 2010|isbn=978-8860736260}} He directed the Teatro Gerolamo in Milan from 1979 until its close in 1983. As a lyricist, he often collaborated with Giorgio Gaber.

In his later years Simonetta collaborated with the newspaper Il Giornale as a theatrical critic and was one of the screenwriters

of the sitcom Nonno Felice. He died of tumor.