Anthony Franciosa

Anthony “Tony” Franciosa (1928-2006) was born in New York’s Little Italy, the grandchild of emigrants from Melfi, Basilicata, in the heart of Southern Italy: his parents separated when he was just one, and he was raised by his mother and aunt.

A theater-lover from childhood, he joined the prestigious Actors Studio in 1950, before making his Broadway debut in 1953 in End as a Man, an appearance he would follow a couple of years later in A Hatful of Rain.

He soon moved to film, appearing in The Long Hot Summer (1958), The Naked Maja (1958), The Story on Page One (1959) and Career (1959), for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor.

In the 1960s and 70s, he appeared mainly on television, most prominently in the drama series The Name of the Game (1968-1971), before moving to Europe to star in The Cricket (1980) and Tenebrae (1982).

Although handsome and charming, he was reputedly difficult to work with, with a notoriously hair-trigger temper.

He was married four times and had three children; he died of a stroke on January 19, 2006.