Tony Franciosa, the handsome and talented movie and television actor who never quite lived up to his early promise, was born Anthony Papaleo on October 25, 1928 in New York City. Franciosa's parents divorced shortly after his birth, and he never really knew his father. After graduating high school, Franciosa's route to his acting career began on a serendipitous route: during a visit to a Y.M.C.A. to take a free dance lesson, Franciosa came across an audition for a play. Intrigued, Franciosa auditioned and was offered a part. He began acting professionally, taking his mother's maiden name as his stage name, and had his breakthrough in Calder Willingham's play End as a Man (1955), which opened off-Broadway at the Theatre de Lys on September 15, 1953 and transferred to Broadway on October 14th after 32 performances. Staged by Jack Garfein, the play co-starred Ben Gazzara (who won a Theatre World Award and would appear in the movie version), both of whom were associated with the Actors Studio, as was Franciosa.

It was in 1955 that Franciosa first appeared in the role that would make him famous, that of Polo Pope, the brother of a heroin addict, in an Actors Studio workshop production of Michael V. Gazzo's A Hatful of Rain. The production later moved to Broadway, where Franciosa earned an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Tony Award nomination. Hollywood beckoned, and made his cinema debut in Robert Wise's _This Could Be the Night (1957) with 'Paul Douglas' and 'Jean Simmons' . He also appeared in Actors Studio co-founder Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd before reprising the role of Polo Pope in Fred Zinnemann's film of "A Hatful of Rain." Franciosa won an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1958 for "Hatful", and with his good looks, was a very hot commodity in Hollywood.

Franciosa followed up his strong debut by starring in a variety of top A-list films, including George Cukor's Wild Is the Wind, Martin Ritt's "The Long Heart Summer' (1958), and _Naked Maja, The (1958)' , in which he played Francisco Jose de Goya opposite Ava Gardner. His career began to run out of momentum almost as quickly as it had started, as he quickly developed a reputation as a combative personality, earning him a reputation as "difficult". Although he starred in George Roy Hill's adaptation of Tennessee Williams' _Period of Adjustment (1962)- , by 1964, he was reduced to appearing in a TV series, Valentine's Day, which only lasted one season.

He had more success in 1968, when he was cast as one of three alternating leads in the television series "The Name of the Game," a spin-off from the 1966 TV movie "Fame Is The Name Of The Game" (the first TV-movie ever made as a pilot for a TV series that was subsequently picked up as a series). Although the TV show was popular with audiences, Franciosa was fired after appearing in the first two seasons; the network, N.B.C., justified giving him the sack by saying Franciosa's mercurial temper was causing too many problems on the set.

Looking back at his career, in a 1996 interview, Franciosa said that he was too young in the late 1950s, too inexperienced to handle the sudden stardom. "It was an incredible amount of attention, and I wasn't quite mature enough psychologically and emotionally for it."

Franciosa also starred in the series Matt Helm, which only lasted one season, but his talent and charm meant he was in demand throughout the five decades of his career, though not in the kinds of roles that characterized the first two decades of his star period. He continued to act in supporting roles in movies and starring roles in TV movies and series until he retired in 1996. He appeared in one last project, Manifest Mysteries: Coronation, shortly before his death on January 19, 2006 in Los Angeles, CA. He was 77 years old.


Starred in the first TV-movie produced as a TV series pilot to be picked up as a regular series, the two-hour TV-movie Fame Is the Name of the Game (1966) (TV), which was produced by Universal for N.B.C. Universal and N.B.C. were the same entities that pioneered the made-for-TV movie (with 1964's See How They Run (1964) (TV), the first full-length film produced especially for home television). The series, "The Name of the Game" (1968), debuted in 1968 with three leads: Franciosa, Gene Barry and Robert Stack. Franciosa subsequently was fired from the show and, instead of being replaced by one actor, was replaced by a series of actors filling in on his rotation including Robert Culp, Peter Falk, Darren McGavin and Robert Wagner. Father of actor Christopher Franciosa and Marco Franciosa with wife, Rita Thiel; and Nina Franciosa with wife Judy Balaban. Was nominated for Broadway's 1956 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for "A Hatful of Rain," a role he recreated in an Oscar-nominated performance in the film version with the same name, A Hatful of Rain (1957). Troubled characters made him a Hollywood star in the 1950s and 60s but combative behavior on movie sets hampered his career. In 1957 he served 10 days in the Los Angeles County jail for slugging a press photographer. A fervent civil rights activist, he was joined by Marlon Brando and Paul Newman in Gadsden, Alabama in 1963 for a desegregation drive. Son of a construction worker and seamstress who divorced when he was a year old. He seldom saw his father after this. Earned an acting scholarship and became an alumnus of Lee Strasberg's famed Actor's Studio, where he met future wife Shelley Winters. Was due to appear as American mob boss Charlie in The Long Good Friday (1980). After accepting the job and flying from Los Angeles to London to film, he was unhappy with some of the rewrites and just returned home. The part was then given to Eddie Constantine.