Franca Bettoia


Franca Bettoia is an Italian actress.

Life and career

Born in Rome, she made her first film appearance in Un palco all'opera . The following year she appeared in Los amantes del desierto , and opposite Macha Méril and Jacques Charrier in the French production La main chaude . She appeared as a nun in Apocalisse sul fiume giallo, 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 reporting from the side of the nationalists. In 1961, she starred opposite Alan Ladd in Orazi e Curiazi , 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 , the first screen adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend. She then played a princess in the adventure films ' and '. In 1967 she appeared as Ugo Tognazzi’s lover in the comedy Il fischio al naso . Bettoia and Tognazzi married in 1972. They 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? she starred alongside Alberto Sordi and Bernard Blier. In Touche pas à la femme blanche she starred alongside Catherine Deneuve, Marcello Mastroianni and Michel Piccoli. Her last film, Teste rasate is a drama about skinheads, in which her son, Gianmarco Tognazzi, plays the lead role.

Selected filmography