FRANCO CITTI

(23 April 1935 - 14 January 2016)

The Italian actor, son of actor Santino Citti, met director Pier Paolo Pasolini through his brother, writer-director Sergio Citti, who cast him with many other non-professional players in the title role of Accatone (1961), Pasolini’s debut as a director, a story of street life in Rome among the pimps and prostitutes. He was in Pasolini’s next film, Mamma Roma, with Anna Magnani, and later films such as the title role in Oedipus Rex and Pigsty, The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights. Citti had no training as an actor but did have a natural talent and photographed well. He acted in nearly 70 films and television programmes including working with directors Brunello Rondi, Sergio Corbucci, Marcel Carné and many films directed by his brother. Franco also co-directed a film with Sergio, Cartoni Animati in 1997, shortly before he suffered a stroke. He played Calo in The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977), a mini-series comprising Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, The Godfather II with extra footage. He also appeared in The Godfather III in 1990.

MICHAEL DARVELL