Remembering Franco Pesce

Franceso Pesce was born in Naples, Italy on August 11, 1890. He was the son of Ettore Pesce who introduced the first motion picture to Naples in 1897. Franco attended the Tecnico Superiore where he studied music and intended on being a baritone singer. However he was attracted to the cinema working as an assistant for Partenope Films and Vesuvio Films in Naples. He then moved to Rome in the 1920s where he became a camera operator and eventually a cinematographer. In the 1940s he began taking small supporting and character roles. Pesce made over 20 appearances in the Euro-western genre usually playing undertakers, and townsmen. He was a regular in Gianni Garko's 'Sartana' series. Often mistakenly credited as Graham Sooty the only alias he used was Frank Fisher. With his many facial expressions he was used for comic relief and only occasionally was he given a serious role. Some of his most memorable Spaghetti westerns include “A Pistol for Ringo” (1965), “Don't Wait Django... Shoot!” (1967), “God May Forgive You, Nor Me”, “Sartana”, “A Pistol for 100 Coffins” all 1968, “The Forgotten Pistolero” (1969) “Shango” (1970) , “Guns for Dollars” (1971) and “We are No Angels” (1975). Pesce died of natural causes on December 6, 1975. Today we remember Franco Pesce on what would have been his 120th birthday.