Happy 80th Birthday Franco Giraldi

Franco Giraldi was born on July 11, 1931 in Komen, Slovenia, Yugoslavia. His mother was Slovenia and his father an Italian. He began his film career as a film critic for the newspaper l'Unità and he helped found the Trieste Film Club along with Tullio Kezich and Callisto Cosulich. Giraldi then worked as an assistant director for such directors as Gillo Pontecorvo, Giuseppe De Santis, Sergio Corbucci. When the western genre became big Franco worked as an assistant to Sergio Leone on ‘Fistful of Dollars" (1964). He then became a director of comedy films often using the pseudonym Frank Garfield. During this time he directed four Euro-westerns: "7 Guns for the MacGregors" (1966), "Up the MacGregors", "Sugar Colt" (both 1967) and "A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die" (1968). Later on in his career Giraldi drifted into directing TV programs. His last work as a director was on a 2003 documentary called "Firenze, il nostro domani". Today we celebrate Franco Giraldi’s 80^th birthday.