Franca Bettoia
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- May 14, 1936
- Died
- September 13, 2024
- Birthplace
- Roma, Lazio, Italy
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.
Filmography
The Man with the Cigar in His Mouth 1997
as Self
Skinheads 1993
as Roberta
Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti 1977
as Samoa (archive footage)
Don't Touch the White Woman! 1974
as Rayon de Lune (as Franca Bettoja)
Will Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa? 1968
as Rita Di Salvio
The Seventh Floor 1967
as Giovanna
Return of Sandokan 1964
as Samoa
Sandokan Fights Back 1964
as Samoa
The Last Man on Earth 1964
as Ruth Collins
The Lion of St. Mark 1963
as Isabella Fieschi
Attack of the Normans 1962
as Queen Patricia
Last Chance for Life 1962
as Mara Berri
Day by Day, Desperately 1961
as Marcella
Duel of Champions 1961
as Marcia
The Dialogue of the Carmelites 1960
as Carmelite nun (uncredited)
The Dam on the Yellow River 1960
as Schwester Celeste
The Itchy Palm 1960
as Christiane
Cavalcata selvaggia 1960
as Paola
Nights of the Teddy Boys 1959
as Orietta Fantoni
So Much Love Lost 1958
as Annie
Man of Straw 1958
as Rita
Desert Warrior 1957
as Suleika
Credits from TMDB.