Franco Franchi

Birthday

Sep 28, 1922

Bio: Italian actor Franco Franchi was the clean-shaven half of the international film comedy team Franco and Ciccio (Ciccio Ingrassia was the mustachioed half). It's difficult to determine whether Franco or Ciccio was the straight man because it's hard to figure out which one was the comedian. Watching Franco and Ciccio was like watching Jerry Lewis and Jim Carrey on… More Bio: Italian actor Franco Franchi was the clean-shaven half of the international film comedy team Franco and Ciccio (Ciccio Ingrassia was the mustachioed half). It's difficult to determine whether Franco or Ciccio was the straight man because it's hard to figure out which one was the comedian. Watching Franco and Ciccio was like watching Jerry Lewis and Jim Carrey on amphetamines; they seemed to subscribe to the theory that running in circles and screaming incoherently was the pinnacle of comic technique. American audiences might have been spared Franco and Ciccio had it not been for their 1966 vehicle Two Marines and a General, which contained the last performance of the immortal Buster Keaton (as a Nazi general!). Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia could be seen at their most frenetic, playing comic doormen in Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966), wherein all comic honors were won hands-down by the villain, Vincent Price. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi