Anthony Franciosa
Encyclopedia
Anthony Franciosa was an American actor, usually billed as Tony Franciosa during the height of his career.
Group off Broadway (at the same time as actress Beatrice Arthur
). Before he became successful at acting, he worked a variety of jobs which included being a waiter, dishwasher, day laborer, and messenger boy. Several years later he garnered rave reviews and a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway
performance of the play A Hatful of Rain
.
When he reprised his role in the film version in 1957, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor
. He followed that with roles in several major films, including A Face in the Crowd with Andy Griffith
and Patricia Neal
, Career
with Dean Martin
and Shirley MacLaine
, The Long Hot Summer with Paul Newman
and Orson Welles
, Period of Adjustment
with Jane Fonda
, The Pleasure Seekers
with Ann-Margret
and Carol Lynley
, Fathom
in 1967 with Raquel Welch
, The Drowning Pool
with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
, and Rio Conchos
with Richard Boone
and Stuart Whitman
.
He guest-starred in such television series as Jack Palance
's circus
drama
, The Greatest Show on Earth
, which aired on ABC
from 1963–1964. That same season, he appeared in the ABC medical drama
about psychiatry
, Breaking Point.
Producer David Dortort
was on the verge of casting him as Cameron Mitchell
's best friend and brother-in-law, Manolito Montoya, on the western
, The High Chaparral
, if Henry Darrow
did not make it in time. Unfortunately for Franciosa, he lost the part, because Darrow had arrived on the set, right on time, before filming was about to begin, in two weeks.
Eager to act in any medium, he became a series lead in Valentine's Day, The Name of the Game
(and its pilot TV-movie Fame Is the Name of the Game
), and Matt Helm
. In the 1980s he starred in the Aaron Spelling
-produced series Finder of Lost Loves
.
; they were married from May 4, 1957 until their divorce in 1960. They had no children. She predeceased him by only 5 days.
His first wife, Beatrice Bakalyar, was a writer. They were married for five years from 1952 to 1957. The marriage ended in divorce.
His third wife, the former Judith Balaban, is the author of the book The Bridesmaids, about her friend Princess Grace of Monaco
, in whose wedding she served as a bridesmaid. This marriage produced Franciosa's only daughter, Nina.
His last wife (from November 27, 1970 until his death in 2006) was Rita Theil, by whom he had two sons, Marco and Christopher. Christopher Franciosa is an actor. Marco Franciosa is an organic farmer.
During his later years, Tony lived in Brentwood, a district in West Los Angeles.
in Los Angeles, California
after suffering a massive stroke
. His death came only five days after that of his ex-wife Shelley Winters
(Franciosa suffered the stroke the day Winters died - January 14). He is survived by his wife, Rita, his children, Nina, Christopher and Marco and his grandchildren, Ruby and Cassius Franciosa.
Source: People Weekly, March 18, 1996 v45 n11 p73
Tony, reflecting about Rita's influence on him, said; "It took years of therapy and simply living through things to finally accept and enjoy myself. My wife Rita's influence has been profound in that process. Her family was a product of The Great Disaster — World War II. She emerged from the flames with a remarkable buoyancy. Each day she rises with an optimism, a serenity toward life that is certainly contagious. Does that sound romantic? If so, so be it."
Source: TV Heaven
Winters won an Academy Award in 1960, and later said "The night I won my first Oscar my husband took one look at it and I knew my marriage was over."
Early life
Born as Anthony George Papaleo to Italian-American parents, and raised by his mother and aunt, he adopted his mother's maiden name (Franciosa) as his professional name.Acting career
In 1948 he joined the Cherry Lane TheatreCherry Lane Theatre
The Cherry Lane Theatre , located at 38 Commerce Street in the borough of Manhattan, was New York City's oldest, continuously running off-Broadway theater...
Group off Broadway (at the same time as actress Beatrice Arthur
Beatrice Arthur
Beatrice "Bea" Arthur was an American actress, comedienne and singer whose career spanned seven decades. Arthur achieved fame as the character Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family and Maude, and as Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, winning Emmy Awards for both...
). Before he became successful at acting, he worked a variety of jobs which included being a waiter, dishwasher, day laborer, and messenger boy. Several years later he garnered rave reviews and a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
performance of the play A Hatful of Rain
A Hatful of Rain
A Hatful of Rain is a 1957 dramatic film. The movie was a rarity for its time in its frank depiction of the effect of drug addiction.It is a medically and sociologically accurate account of the effects of morphine on an addict and his family ....
.
When he reprised his role in the film version in 1957, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
. He followed that with roles in several major films, including A Face in the Crowd with Andy Griffith
Andy Griffith
Andy Samuel Griffith is an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's epic film A Face in the Crowd before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead...
and Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal was an American actress of stage and screen. She was best known for her film roles as World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still , wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's , middle-aged housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud , for which she won...
, Career
Career (1959 film)
Career is a 1959 blacklist film drama co-written by Dalton Trumbo and starring Dean Martin, Tony Franciosa, and Shirley MacLaine. The movie involves actor Sam Lawson , bent on breaking into the big time at any cost, braving World War II, the Korean War and even the more recent blacklist, something...
with Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
, The Long Hot Summer with Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
and Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
, Period of Adjustment
Period of Adjustment (film)
Period of Adjustment is a 1962 drama film directed by George Roy Hill. his first feature-length film, and based on the play of the same name by Tennessee Williams.-Plot summary:...
with Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, The Pleasure Seekers
The Pleasure Seekers
The Pleasure Seekers is a 1964 20th Century Fox motion picture starring Ann-Margret, Anthony Franciosa, and Carol Lynley, with Gardner McKay, Pamela Tiffin, Brian Keith, and Gene Tierney....
with Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She became famous for her starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Cincinnati Kid, Carnal Knowledge, and Tommy...
and Carol Lynley
Carol Lynley
Carol Lynley is an American actress and former child model.-Life and career:Lynley was born Carole Ann Jones in New York City, the daughter of Frances , a waitress, and Cyril Jones. Her father was Irish and her mother, a native of New England, was of English, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Native...
, Fathom
Fathom (film)
Fathom is a 1967 British spy comedy film directed by Leslie H. Martinson, starring Anthony Franciosa and Raquel Welch. Fathom Harvill is a dental assistant and an American skydiver touring Europe with a U.S. parachute team...
in 1967 with Raquel Welch
Raquel Welch
Jo Raquel Tejada , better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in a animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. , for which she may be...
, The Drowning Pool
The Drowning Pool (film)
The Drowning Pool is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and based upon Ross Macdonald's novel The Drowning Pool. The film stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Anthony Franciosa, and is a sequel to Harper...
with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
Joanne Woodward
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American actress, television and theatrical producer, and widow of Paul Newman...
, and Rio Conchos
Rio Conchos (1964 film)
Rio Conchos is a 1964 Cinemascope Western starring Stuart Whitman, Richard Boone, Tony Franciosa, Edmund O'Brien, and in his motion picture debut, Jim Brown....
with Richard Boone
Richard Boone
Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...
and Stuart Whitman
Stuart Whitman
Stuart Maxwell Whitman is an American actor.Stuart Whitman is arguably best-known for playing Marshal Jim Crown in the western television series Cimarron Strip in 1967...
.
He guest-starred in such television series as Jack Palance
Jack Palance
Jack Palance , was an American actor. During half a century of film and television appearances, Palance was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers.-Early life:Palance, one of five children, was born Volodymyr...
's circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth (TV series)
The Greatest Show on Earth is an American drama series starring Jack Palance about the American circus, which aired on ABC from September 17, 1963, to April 28, 1964...
, which aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
from 1963–1964. That same season, he appeared in the ABC medical drama
Medical drama
A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
about psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, Breaking Point.
Producer David Dortort
David Dortort
-Further reading:*"David Dortort." The Complete Marquis Who's Who. Marquis Who's Who, 2010. Gale Biography In Context. Web. Retrieved 22 Sept. 2010. Fee, via Fairfax County Public Library...
was on the verge of casting him as Cameron Mitchell
Cameron Mitchell (actor)
Cameron Mitchell was an American film, television and Broadway actor with close ties to one of Canada's most successful families, and considered, by Lee Strasberg, to be one of the founding members of The Actor's Studio in New York City.-Early life and career:Born Cameron MacDowell Mitzel in...
's best friend and brother-in-law, Manolito Montoya, on the western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
, The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral is a Western-themed television series starring Leif Erickson and Cameron Mitchell which aired on NBC from 1967 to 1971. The show was created by David Dortort, who had previously created the hit Bonanza for the network...
, if Henry Darrow
Henry Darrow
Henry Darrow is a prolific Puerto Rican-American character actor of stage and film. Darrow is probably best remembered for his role as Big John Cannon's teasing brother-in-law, and Buck Cannon's favorite ranch hand, and best friend, Manolito Montoya, in the 1960s television series The High...
did not make it in time. Unfortunately for Franciosa, he lost the part, because Darrow had arrived on the set, right on time, before filming was about to begin, in two weeks.
Eager to act in any medium, he became a series lead in Valentine's Day, The Name of the Game
The Name of the Game (TV series)
The Name of the Game is an American television series starring Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack that ran from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes. It was a pioneering wheel series, setting the stage for the likes of The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s...
(and its pilot TV-movie Fame Is the Name of the Game
Fame Is the Name of the Game
Fame Is the Name of the Game is an American TV-movie, directed by Stuart Rosenberg, that aired on NBC and served as the pilot episode of the subsequent series The Name of the Game. The film stars Tony Franciosa as an investigative journalist and presents the screen debut of 20-year-old Susan...
), and Matt Helm
Matt Helm (TV series)
Matt Helm is a short-lived American mystery television series which aired on the ABC Network during the 1975-1976 season. The title character was played by Anthony Franciosa.-Overview:...
. In the 1980s he starred in the Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
-produced series Finder of Lost Loves
Finder of Lost Loves
Finder of Lost Loves is an American drama series aired by the ABC network during the 1984-1985 season.-Synopsis:After Cary Maxwell's wife Kate dies, he decides to set up a private detective agency specializing in reuniting clients with a former loved one...
.
Personal life
He was married four times, and had three children. His most famous wife was Oscar-winning actress Shelley WintersShelley Winters
Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television; her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006...
; they were married from May 4, 1957 until their divorce in 1960. They had no children. She predeceased him by only 5 days.
His first wife, Beatrice Bakalyar, was a writer. They were married for five years from 1952 to 1957. The marriage ended in divorce.
His third wife, the former Judith Balaban, is the author of the book The Bridesmaids, about her friend Princess Grace of Monaco
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
, in whose wedding she served as a bridesmaid. This marriage produced Franciosa's only daughter, Nina.
His last wife (from November 27, 1970 until his death in 2006) was Rita Theil, by whom he had two sons, Marco and Christopher. Christopher Franciosa is an actor. Marco Franciosa is an organic farmer.
During his later years, Tony lived in Brentwood, a district in West Los Angeles.
Death
On January 19, 2006, Anthony Franciosa died at age 77 at UCLA Medical CenterRonald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California....
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
after suffering a massive stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
. His death came only five days after that of his ex-wife Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television; her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006...
(Franciosa suffered the stroke the day Winters died - January 14). He is survived by his wife, Rita, his children, Nina, Christopher and Marco and his grandchildren, Ruby and Cassius Franciosa.
Quotations
Rita, when asked about Anthony's hair-trigger temper said, "He was never taught how to control his temper ... I changed him a lot ... We still have good fights once in a while, but I can scream back at him."Source: People Weekly, March 18, 1996 v45 n11 p73
Tony, reflecting about Rita's influence on him, said; "It took years of therapy and simply living through things to finally accept and enjoy myself. My wife Rita's influence has been profound in that process. Her family was a product of The Great Disaster — World War II. She emerged from the flames with a remarkable buoyancy. Each day she rises with an optimism, a serenity toward life that is certainly contagious. Does that sound romantic? If so, so be it."
Source: TV Heaven
Winters won an Academy Award in 1960, and later said "The night I won my first Oscar my husband took one look at it and I knew my marriage was over."