He also worked as a vaudeville comedian in small theatres: he sang, danced, told jokes, imitated animal sounds, and so on. Reminiscences of such early artistic feats are frequently encountered among the many personages he gave life to.

He kept playing secondary roles in a number of films, until in 1951 he was chosen by Federico Fellini for the special character of the 'White Sheik' in Lo sceicco bianco, and his popularity started to grow.
In 1954 he created the character of Nando Mericoni in Un americano a Roma, a childish young man in post-war Rome, whose biggest dream is to live the American way of life: he clumsily pretends to be a native of Kansas City, but always ends up getting into serious trouble. The film eventually became a cult movie (Sordi was also one of the authors of the script), up to the point that soon later Alberto was officially invited to the United States, were he received a Kansas City honorary citizenship.

Commonly known as a comic actor, as many of his well-known films are comedies, Sordi has played a great number of different characters (often named Alberto, as himself); nevertheless, some of his roles have also been very serious or dramatic, but never lacking a touch of Roman humor.

His films usually carry elements of social satire, sometimes mild, sometimes very bitter; he liked to play a typical middle class Italian, with many defects and few good qualities.

Even as a famous actor, Alberto remained rather fond of singing, one of his first activities: very often he sang short tunes in TV show appearances, in commercials, and even in a few films he played in; some of them have satirical or nonsense lyrics, which he wrote himself together with composer Piero Piccioni. The following links show a few examples on YouTube:

Despite having had flirts with several actresses during his life, Alberto Sordi never got married: « Why should I put a stranger into my home?» was his famous comment about this issue; «I already have a family: my mother and father, my sisters, my brother, my film editor, my secretary, my press agent. Is this not a family?»

Being extremely jealous of his private life, spent in the large house, elegantly furnished, where he lived together with his sisters, and the roles he usually played in his films, led many people to believe he was a miser and somewhat misanthropic, although this never affected his immense popularity. Instead after his death, the public learnt that Alberto had been giving funds to charity for years, keeping it as a secret, not to have any publicity in return. A foundation named after him is presently financing five projects in Africa.

One of his great passions was Rome's football team, which he was a big fan of. In quite a few films he appeared in, the character is a football fan and this sport is somewhat involved in the script.

Having been directed by important Italian directors, such as Federico Fellini, Ettore Scola, Cesare Zavattini, Mario Monicelli, Vittorio De Sica, Luigi Comencini, his films sometimes have a rather important cast; he also personally directed some of his movies.

Among the famous national and international stars he worked with, the most outstanding ones are Vittorio Gassman, David Niven, Claudia Cardinale, Bette Davis, Monica Vitti, Bernard Blier, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Silvana Mangano, Shelley Winters, and several others.

Thos who would like to see some of his films should better choose the original version: since one of Sordi's best qualities was his voice, the dubbing would surely spoil most of his appeal.