Person Biography:
Franco Nero is a renowned Italian actor, born in Parma, Northern Italy, to a strict police sergeant's family. Growing up, Nero showed a keen interest in acting, participating in student plays during his teenage years. He briefly attended a leading theater school before moving to Rome, where he joined a group of friends to make documentaries. Nero worked various jobs on the crew, studying economics and trade at Milan University, and appeared in popular Italian photo-novels.
Nero's early acting career included a small role in Carlo Lizzani's La Celestina P... R... (1965). However, his breakthrough came when director John Huston noticed his handsome face and cast him as "Abel" in The Bible in the Beginning... (1966) (aka La Bibbia). Success followed with the role of the lonely gunfighter, dragging a coffin, in Sergio Corbucci's Django (1966).
Nero continued to work in the film industry, appearing in various roles, including Joshua Logan's Camelot (1967) (Warner Bros.),opposite Vanessa Redgrave, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award. He met Redgrave during the filming of Camelot and went on to become her long-time partner, marrying her decades later.
Throughout his career, Nero has worked with some of Europe's top directors, including Luis Buñuel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Claude Chabrol, Sergey Bondarchuk, and Michael Cacoyannis, among many others. He has appeared in over 200 movies worldwide, taking on a wide range of roles, from spaghetti-westerns to war dramas, and even playing leading national heroes.
Apart from his acting career, Nero has been involved in various charitable organizations, particularly the Don Bosco orphanage in Tivoli, which he has supported for over 45 years. He has received numerous awards and honors, including a knighthood of the Italian Republic in 1992 and an honorary degree of doctor of Letters honoris causa from Brunel University of London in 2011.
