| Native Name Lang: | Italian |
| Birth Name: | Arrigo Petacco |
| Birth Date: | 7 August 1929 |
| Birth Place: | Castelnuovo Magra, Kingdom of Italy |
| Death Place: | Porto Venere, Italy |
| Occupation: | Writer, journalist, historian |
| Language: | Italian |
| Period: | 20th–21st century |
Arrigo Petacco (7 August 1929 – 3 April 2018) was an Italian writer, historian and journalist.
Petacco was special envoy, editor-in-chief and executive director of La Nazione and La Storia Illustrata, and author of the homonymous monthly television program on the RAI.[1]
He began his journalistic career at Il Lavoro, a newspaper published in Genoa, directed by Sandro Pertini. Prolific historical writer, experienced journalist, he wrote several film plots[2] and made numerous television programs, especially for RAI, the Italian main public service broadcaster. In his career as a journalist has interviewed some of the protagonists of the Second World War.[1]
In 1957, Petacco married Lucetta De Martino with whom he had two daughters: Monica, who lives in Rome, and Carlotta, living in Milan. He is widowed since 1989.Since then he lives alone in Portovenere, near La Spezia.[1]
In 1983, he won the Saint Vincent award for journalism and in 2006 received the Capo d'Orlando prize for journalism. Petacco died on 3 April 2018 of liver cancer at the age of 88.[3] [4]