Born in Naples, Taranto started his career as a child actor in 1918 starring in some local stage companies.

[1] In 1928 he successfully entered into the sceneggiata genre:[1] invited on tour in the United States, he returned with "a pianola tape and a thousand dollars",[2] used to finance his first company of variety, which lasted only fifteen days and ended in total disaster.

[1][2] Taranto achieved large notoriety thanks to two macchiette (i.e. comic musical monologues caricaturing stock characters), Ciccio Formaggio and Baron Carlo Mazza, two caricatural characters of proven success that he reprised several times during his career.

[1][3] In the sixties he was several times sidekick of Totò in a number of successful comedies and starred in numerous musicarelli films.

[1] Taranto also starred in a number of TV films, took part in several television and radio variety shows and recorded several songs.