{{Short description|Italian actor and cinematographer}} {{One source|date=February 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Franco Pesce | image = Franco Pesce.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1890|8|11}} | birth_place = Naples, Kingdom of Italy | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1975|12|6|1890|8|11}} | death_place = Rome, Italy | occupation = Actor }} '''Franco Pesce''' (11 August 1890 – 6 December 1975) was an Italian actor and cinematographer.
== Life and career == Franco Pesce was born in Naples. He was the son of the actor Ettore. At a young age Pesce studied lyric singing with the intention of becoming an opera singer.<ref name=bio>{{cite book|last=Enrico Lancia, Roberto Poppi|title=Dizionario del cinema italiano: Gli artisti. Gli attori dal 1930 ai giorni nostri|date=2003 |publisher=Gremese Editore, 2003|isbn=8884402697}}</ref> At 20 years old he abandoned his studies to enter the cinema industry as a film operator.<ref name="bio"/> Pesce moved to Rome with the advent of sound film where he became a cinematographer. Later in his life, beginning in 1940, he started a very productive career as a character actor.<ref name="bio"/> In his later years Pesce was mainly active in spaghetti western films. He was often credited under English pseudonyms, usually interpreting roles of petulant, pedantic and intriguing old men.<ref name="bio"/>
==Selected filmography== * ''Eternal Melodies'' (1940) * ''Apparition'' (1943) * ''Farewell, My Beautiful Naples'' (1946) * ''Mad About Opera'' (1948) * ''Baron Carlo Mazza'' (1948) * ''Crossroads of Passion'' (1948) * ''Flying Squadron'' (1949) * ''The Beggar's Daughter'' (1950) * ''The Transporter'' (1950) * ''The Bread Peddler'' (1950) * ''Song of Spring'' (1951) * ''Operation Mitra'' (1951) * ''They Were Three Hundred'' (1952) * ''Prisoners of Darkness'' (1952) * ''Prisoner in the Tower of Fire'' (1952) * ''If You Won a Hundred Million'' (1953) * ''The Lovers of Manon Lescaut'' (1954) * ''The Last Race'' (1954) * ''Revolt of the Mercenaries'' (1961) * ''Long Days of Hate'' (1968) * ''Pistol for a Hundred Coffins'' (1968) * ''Orgasmo'' (1969) * ''Le Mans, Shortcut to Hell'' (1970) * ''Cloud of Dust... Cry of Death... Sartana Is Coming'' (1970) * ''Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay'' (1970) * ''In Love, Every Pleasure Has Its Pain'' (1971) * ''The Last Traitor'' (1971) * ''They Call Me Hallelujah'' (1971) * ''His Name Was Holy Ghost'' (1972) *''Where the Bullets Fly'' (1972) * ''We Are No Angels'' (1975) * ''The Diamond Peddlers'' (1976)
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{commons}} *{{IMDb name|0646742}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pesce, Franco}} Category:1975 deaths Category:1890 births Category:Film people from Naples Category:Italian male film actors Category:20th-century Italian male actors Category:Italian cinematographers Category:Male actors from Naples