Actress Franca Bettoja, Ugo Tognazzi’s Widow, Dies
The actress dies Franca Bettoja. The appreciated interpreter of the film “L’uomo di paglia” by Pietro Germi, wife of the actor Ugo Tognazzipassed away in Rome at the age of 88. The news of her death has been confirmed to Adnkronos from the family.
In 1972 the actress married Tognazzi with whom she had worked in the film “Il fischio al naso”, directed by him in 1967, and with whom she had already had two children, the actor Gianmarco (1967) and the director Maria Sole (1971). After her marriage, her film appearances became increasingly rare: her last appearance on the big screen dates back to 1993 in “Teste rasate” by Claudio Fragasso, where she plays the part of the mother of the character played by her son Gianmarco.
Born in Rome on May 14, 1936, Franca Bettoja She began her acting career with small parts in the films “Un palco all’opera” (1955), by Siro Marcellini (1955), “Gli amanti del deserto” (1956) by Gianni Vernuccio and “La ritrovatella di Pompei” (1957) by Giacomo Gentilomo (1957). She obtained her first co-starring role with “L’uomo di paglia” (1958) by Germi, presented at the Cannes Film Festival, playing the difficult and tormented character of Rita FabianiThe role earned her a nomination for the Grolla d’oro as best leading actress.
Gained fame from the television series “La pisana” (1960), Bettoja took part in various genre films shot in Cinecittàamong which “Horatii e Curiatii” (1961) by Ferdinando Baldi and Terence Young (1961), “I normani” (1962( by Giuseppe Vari (1962), “Il Leone di San Marco” (1964) by Luigi Capuano and “Sandokan alla riscossa” and “Sandokan contro il leopardo di Sarawak”, filmed one after the other in 1964 with Capuano as director. In 1962 it was nominated for the Silver ribbon for best supporting actress for the role of Marcella in the film “Giorno per giorno, disperatamente”, the debut of director Alfredo Giannetti. During 1962, she presented the variety show “Tempo di Jazz” for seven months, a program that aired on the Rai National Channel and in 1963 she acted alongside Vincent Price in the film “L’ultimo uomo sulla terra” by Ubaldo Ragona, considered a cult of the horror/science fiction genre.
Franca Bettoja She was then directed by Ettore Scola in “Will Our Heroes Find Their Friend Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa?” (1968) and by Marco Ferreri in “Don’t Touch the White Woman” (1974), her last major film.
The widow of Ugo Tognazzi She was a master of elegance on and off the set, as underlined by the exhibition “Franca Bettoja Tognazzi. The fashion of an actress”, which was held from 13 December 2022 to 12 March 2023 in Rome in Castel Sant’Angelo. The exhibition proposed a conspicuous number of evening dresses that marked the social events of Rome and the red carpets of film festivals, in a period of great rebirth and affirmation of Italian cinema from the 1950s to the 1970s. These are the same years that saw the actress participate several times in Italian and foreign films, alongside very famous actors and directors of the time. Her taste, always elegant and at the same time very personal and out of the ordinary, was expressed both through the choice of very famous stylists such as Schuberth and the Fontana Sisters, and through the predilection for preciously embroidered fabrics and personalized models made by well-known Roman tailors, the last heirs of a profession of high and refined craftsmanship.
The Gala Wardrobe of Franca Bettojain addition to underlining her reserved – but at the same time histrionic – personality, testifies to the taste of an era in which it can be said without a doubt that “the habit made the man”, especially in the world of Cinema. Over eighty dresses by Bettoja have been acquired for the Fashion collections of the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum, which is part of the State Museums Directorate of the city of Rome, where once the exhibition was over they were deposited and displayed as part of the already vast collection of 20th century fashion.
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