Franca Bettoia

Franca Bettoia

Born 1936-05-14 (age 90) Roma, Lazio, Italy
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Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Franca Bettoia (or Bettoja; born 14 May 1936) is an Italian actress.

Born in Rome, she made her first film appearance in Un palco all'opera (1955, by Siro Marcellini). The following year she appeared in Los amantes del desierto ("Desert Warrior", a Spanish-Italian desert epic starring Ricardo Montalban, Carmen Sevilla and Gino Cervi. She next appeared opposite Pietro Germi in L'uomo di paglia (1958), and opposite Macha Méril and Jacques Charrier in the French production La main chaude (1960, by Gérard Oury). She appeared as a nun in Apocalisse sul Fiume Giallo (The Dam on the Yellow River, 1960), an anti-Communist propaganda film which portrays the victory of Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army as seen through the eyes of an American journalist (Georges Marchal) reporting from the side of the nationalists. In 1961, she starred opposite Alan Ladd in Orazi e Curiazi (Duel of the Champions), a sword and sandals adventure set in ancient Rome.

In 1964, Bettoia co-starred with Vincent Price in the horror/science fiction film The Last Man on Earth (1964, by Ubaldo Ragone and Sidney Salkow), the first screen adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend. She then played a princess in the adventure films Sandokan alla riscossa (1964) and Sandokan contro il leopardo di Sarawak (1964). In 1967 she appeared as Ugo Tognazzi’s lover in the comedy Il fischio al naso (The Seventh Floor, 1967). Bettoia and Tognazzi married in 1972. They had a had a daughter, film director Maria Sole Tognazzi.

Bettoia acted in only three more films after Il fischio al naso. In the comedy Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l'amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa? (1968, by Ettore Scola) she starred alongside Alberto Sordi and Bernard Blier. In Touche pas à la femme blanche (Don’t Touch the White Woman, directed by Marco Ferreri in 1974) she starred alongside Catherine Deneuve, Marcello Mastroianni and Michel Piccoli. Her last film, Teste rasate (1993) is a drama about skinheads, in which her son, Gianmarco Tognazzi, plays the lead role.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Franca Bettoia, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.​

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Known For

The Last Man on Earth
The Last Man on Earth

1964

as Ruth Collins

The Dialogue of the Carmelites
The Dialogue of the Carmelites

1960

as Carmelite nun (uncredited)

Desert Warrior
Desert Warrior

1957

as Suleika

The Seventh Floor
The Seventh Floor

1967

as Giovanna

The Lion of St. Mark
The Lion of St. Mark

1963

as Isabella Fieschi

Attack of the Normans
Attack of the Normans

1962

as Queen Patricia

Duel of Champions
Duel of Champions

1961

as Marcia

Don't Touch the White Woman!
Don't Touch the White Woman!

1974

as Rayon de Lune (as Franca Bettoja)

Day by Day, Desperately
Day by Day, Desperately

1961

as Marcella

The Dam on the Yellow River
The Dam on the Yellow River

1960

as Schwester Celeste

Skinheads
Skinheads

1993

as Roberta

Sandokan Fights Back
Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti
Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti

1977

as Samoa (archive footage)

Return of Sandokan
Return of Sandokan

1964

as Samoa

Nights of the Teddy Boys
Nights of the Teddy Boys

1959

as Orietta Fantoni

Cavalcata selvaggia
Cavalcata selvaggia

1960

as Paola

Man of Straw
Man of Straw

1958

as Rita

So Much Love Lost
So Much Love Lost

1958

as Annie