Fabrizio De Rossi

Fabrizio De Rossi
Biological Information
Full name	Fabrizio De Rossi
Nicknames	Fabri (by Jack)
Gender	Male
Born	1890s
Death	April 15, 1912
Cause	Perished on the Titanic
Background Information
Romances	Helga Dahl
Titanic Statistics
Boarded	Southampton, England
Destination	New York, U.S.A.
Occupation	Passenger
Class	Third class
Fate	He was killed after being crushed by a falling smokestack.
Production
Classification	Fictional character
Portrayal	Danny Nucci

Fabrizio De Rossi was a supporting character in the film Titanic. He was Jack Dawson's best friend and trustworthy companion. He was an Italian native. It is not known when they met, but Fabrizio accompanied Jack on the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic in April, 1912.

Biography

Early life

Fabrizio was born in Italy. He met Jack Dawson and dreamed of travelling to America.

Life onboard Titanic

Jack and Fabrizio were in a bar playing poker with Olaf and Sven with the Swedish men's tickets for the Titanic wagered in the game. With less then five minutes until the Titanic launched, Fabrizio had a dead hand but Jack had won his hand in poker along with a pocket knife, money, and two tickets for steerage. The two of them raced to the ship and were the last people to board, falsely claiming they had completed the health and sanitation inspections and that they were Americans. Subsequently, the sixth officer of the Titanic believed their lie snd allowed them aboard. When they entered their bunk, Jack greeted their bunkmates, Bjorn and Olaus Gunderson, who were confused to see Fabrizio and Jack had boarded instead of Olaf and Sven.

Jack and Fabrizio later met Thomas Ryan (Tommy), an Irishman, and Helga Dahl, a native Norwegian whom Fabrizio fell in love with. After settling in, Jack and Fabrizio went topside where they looked over the bow shouting about their good fortune with Fabrizo jokingly saying he could see the Statue of Liberty already. They also briefly watched dolphins swim beneath them.

Later on, Fabrizio begged Helga to come with him to America, but Helga's father, Olaf Dahl, refused and they were separated. He was later seen dancing at the Third class party with Helga, Tommy, Jack and Rose DeWitt Bukater that night.

Titanic disaster

During the sinking of Titanic, Fabrizio was awakeneded when the ship crashed into an iceberg. After Jack and Rose escaped the flooded lower decks, they found Tommy and Fabrizio behind a locked gate intended to prevent the steerage passengers escaping to the boat deck and manned from the other side by crew personnel. Seeing that escape from the main stairwell was hopeless, the group tried a different route but were again thwarted by a smaller locked gate manned by crew. Under Jack's instruction, Fabrizio, Jack, Tommy and another man tore a nearby bench from the floor while Rose cleared the way and, after a few rams, they succeeded in breaking down the gate. The surrounding passengers escaped and Tommy punched the crew member who had refused to unlock the gate, knocking him out.

Once on deck, Fabrizio, Jack, Rose and Tommy attempt to find a lifeboat for all four of them to ensure their survival. Initially unsuccessful, Jack and Rose split from Tommy and Fabrizio to widen the search. Tommy and Fabrizio found a lifeboat with empty spaces and begged to be admitted but William Murdoch, in charge of filling the boat, wouldn't allow them as he had interpreted the captain's orders as "Women and Children only", as opposed to "Women and Children First". In the ensuing ruckus, Tommy was pushed forward by another man and accidentally shot by Murdoch. He died quickly. Fabrizio furiously cursed Murdoch in italian.

With the water advancing towards him up the deck, Fabrizio took Tommy's lifebelt before being forced into the water. He attempted to board Collapsible Boat A to save his own life, which also contained Caledon Hockley. The boat was trapped, but Fabrizio managed to free it by severing its ropes with a penknife. Sadly, he failed to board and is dragged away by a current.

As he attempted to swim to another lifeboat beneath Funnel No. 1, the funnel has tilted to such an angle that its support cables could no longer cope with the stress and they snapped one by one. Fabrizio turned around just in time to see the funnel falling towards him and, before he could swim away, he was crushed.

He reappeared in Rose's Titanic heaven sequence holding Helga's hand and smiling at Rose. He clapped when Jack and Rose kissed.

Behind the scenes

In the original script, Fabrizio wasn't killed by the falling smokestack, managing to avoid it at the last second. After the ship sank, he tried to board a lifeboat, but Cal beat him in the head with an oar, cutting open his scalp, and sarcastically told him to swim to his destination. Fabrizio later died from his injuries.