RIP Mario Lanfranchi

 

Italian producer, director, screenwriter and actor Mario Lanfranchi died in Valparma di Langhirano, Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy on January 3, 2022. He was 94. Born in Parma on June 30, 1927, after graduating from the Accademia dei Filodrammatici in Milan, in 1952 Lanfranchi was called by Sergio Pugliese, director of television programs, to collaborate with the nascent Rai. He was the first to bring opera to the small screen, in 1956, with Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly", which brought attention to the general public of Anna Moffo, then an unknown young American soprano, who became his wife the following year. Lanfranchi was also an owner of horses and greyhounds. He directed the 1968 Euro-western “Death Sentence” starring Tomas Milian.