Monicelli died on November 29, 2010 at the age of 95, after committing suicide by jumping from a window of the San Giovanni hospital in Rome, where he was admitted a few days earlier for prostate cancer.
He attended the University of Milan, where he studied history. While a student, he directed a 16mm feature film which won a prize at the 1935 Venice Film Festival.
The themes that make one laugh always stem from poverty, hunger, misery, old age, sickness, and death. These are the themes that make Italians laugh, anyway.