“Combative” actor Tony Franciosa, 77
Posted: Saturday, January 21st, 2006 11:56 pmLOS ANGELES — Anthony Franciosa, the rakishly handsome, cleft-chinned actor who came to fame on Broadway in the 1950s and had a long career in Hollywood that included starring in five TV series, including “The Name of the Game” and “Matt Helm,” has died. He was 77.
Franciosa had a stroke Monday and died Thursday at the UCLA Medical Center, said his publicist Dick Guttman.
An alumnus of New York’s fabled Actors Studio, Franciosa received his big theater break in 1955 when an Actors Studio workshop production of “A Hatful of Rain” moved to Broadway. His searing portrayal of the brother of a heroin addict earned him a Tony nomination in 1956. …
A string of plum film roles followed…
The actor earned a reputation for having a hair-trigger temper, an image summed up in a 1975 TV Guide article as “hotheaded” and “arrogant.” …
Franciosa, who made his Broadway debut in “End as a Man” in 1953, fell in love with Actors Studio classmate Shelley Winters.
In 1957, after divorcing his first wife, writer Beatrice Bakalyar, Franciosa married Winters. His marriage to Winters, who died Jan. 14, ended in 1960. He also had a six-year marriage to Judy Balaban Kanter. Franciosa is survived by his wife, Rita; his children, Nina, Christopher and Marco; and a granddaughter. … Read full obituary
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Shelley Winters
