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Anthony Franciosa

Anthony Franciosa brought stage-trained intensity to a career that moved restlessly between Broadway, Hollywood films and television. Born in New York City’s Little Italy in 1928, he was raised by his mother and aunt and adopted his mother’s maiden name. Before acting paid the bills, he worked as a welder, ship steward and cook, among other jobs. His route to the stage began at 18, when free dancing lessons at the YMCA led to a role in The Seagull. Franciosa studied privately with Joseph Geigler, earned a scholarship to the Dramatic Workshop and joined the Cherry Lane Theatre Group in 1948. He later became a member of the Actors Studio and made his Broadway debut opposite Ben Gazzara in End as a Man in 1953. The breakthrough was A Hatful of Rain, in which Franciosa played Polo, brother to Gazzara’s drug-addicted Johnny. The stage performance brought him a Tony Award nomination, and he reprised the role for Fred Zinnemann’s 1957 film adaptation, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. His film debut came the same year in Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd, followed by This Could Be the Night and Wild Is the Wind. In The Long, Hot Summer, he played Jody Varner alongside Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Orson Welles. Franciosa’s screen presence suited ambitious, pressured and sometimes volatile characters. His film work ranged from Period of Adjustment and Rio Conchos to Across 110th Street, The Drowning Pool and Dario Argento’s Tenebrae. Television became an equally substantial part of his career. He played determined reporter Jeff Dillon in The Name of the Game, agent Nick Bianco in Search and the title character in the short-lived Matt Helm series. He later led Finder of Lost Loves and appeared in the 1985 revival of The Twilight Zone. Franciosa also returned to theatre for a 1990–91 national tour of Grand Hotel. His final film role came in City Hall in 1996, playing a crime boss opposite Al Pacino and John Cusack. Across stage, film and television, his career retained the charge of an actor who had learned his craft in New York theatre and carried that force into every format.