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We will never forget that voice. Because it was the voice that kept company with so many generations, that accompanied them in their most tender years. Peppino Mazzullo, the historic voice of Topo Gigio, has passed away. The funeral will be celebrated tomorrow Thursday 1 October at 3.30 pm in the church of S. Giovanni Battista in Santo Stefano Briga. Just on June 6th he celebrated his 100th birthday, telling us his story for the last time.
The story of Peppino Mazzullo
He began his artistic career at a very young age in the “Teatro Auditorium San Gaetano” in Santo Stefano di Briga, under the artistic direction of his fellow villager Placido Andriolo, who made him his first actor, also writing monologues specifically for him. Thanks to the recitation of one of these monologues he obtained a scholarship and was able to attend, between 1947 and 1950, the Academy of Cinematographic Arts in Rome and the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Milan.
In 1950 he began his theatrical career with the Guglielmo Della Seta company and with the RAI prose company. He was the first actor at some Milanese theaters, including the “Angelicum” from which the broadcast was broadcast The Adventures of Pinocchio. In the fifties he was part of Enzo Ferrieri’s company. He achieved great notoriety by voicing the character of Topo Gigio, created by Maria Perego, from 1961, continuing uninterruptedly until 2006.
In addition to his own performance vocal, we also remember Mazzullo’s participation in the Zecchino d’Oro shows of the sixties, in the interpretation of the character of Richettothe eternally failed student. In 2004 Mazzullo, having returned to live in Santo Stefano di Briga, founded the “Piccolissimo Teatro di Messina”, within which he directed the “School of comic and dramatic theatre”. In July 2008 he won the award Golden lectern voice cartoon at the fifth edition of the Golden Lectern. Furthermore, in 2011 he was awarded the Voice of Memories Award during the eighth edition.
In 2016 Peppino Mazzullo created an audiovisual project inspired by Dante and Beatrice, reworked in 2026 with official presentation in July of the same year. The video sees the participation of two students of the Piccolissimo Teatro of Messina: Giuseppe Crupi in the role of Dante and Miriam Pellegrino in that of Beatrice, with the narrating voice of Mazzullo himself. The work includes verses taken from Vita Nuova and Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and is configured as a tribute to the figure of women, according to the tradition of the “angel woman”, as well as a message to raise awareness against violence and abuse.