Franco Franchi died 30 years ago, from accusations of mafia association to the large family

Thirty years ago, on 9 December 1992, the actor Francesco Benenato (for all Franco Franchi) died. His was a large family, made up of eighteen children of a bricklayer and his mother who was in charge of tobacco manufacturing. “The first of the boys, he was given the name of Francesco because the daughter born before him, and who bore the same name, died prematurely”, says Massimo Benenato, son of the actor. Franchi didn’t even have the economic possibility to go to school: to make a living he devoted himself to numerous jobs, from “madonnaro” to the porter, from the counterman in a pastry shop to the street artist. Franco Franchi’s death was caused by a hereditary form of liver cirrhosis “of which his mother also died.