Franco Nero
Actor
Biography
Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero (born November 23, 1941), known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor, producer, and director. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film Django (1966), which made him a pop culture icon and launched an international career that includes over 200 leading and supporting roles in a wide variety of films and television programmes.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Nero was actively involved in many popular Italian "genre trends", including poliziotteschi, gialli, and Spaghetti Westerns. His best-known films include The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966), Camelot (1967), The Day of the Owl (1968), The Mercenary (1968), Battle of Neretva (1969), Tristana (1970), Compañeros (1970), Confessions of a Police Captain (1971), The Fifth Cord (1971), High Crime (1973), Street Law (1974), Keoma (1976), Hitch-Hike (1977), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), Enter the Ninja (1981), Die Hard 2 (1990), Letters to Juliet (2010), Cars 2 (2011), and John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017).
Nero has had a long relationship with Vanessa Redgrave, which began during the filming of Camelot. They were married in 2006, and are the parents of the actor Carlo Gabriel Nero.
As Director
Filmography
Django Unchained
as Amerigo Vessepi 2012
John Wick: Chapter 2
as Julius 2017
Cars 2
as Uncle Topolino (voice) 2011
Die Hard 2
as General Ramon Esperanza 1990
The Pope's Exorcist
as The Pope 2023
The Lost City of Z
as Baron de Gondoriz 2017
Letters to Juliet
as Lorenzo 2010
Django
as Django 1966
The Collini Case
as Fabrizio Collini 2019
Force 10 from Navarone
as Lescovar 1978
The Bible: In the Beginning...
as Abel 1966
Tristana
as Horacio 1970
Querelle
as Lieutenant Seblon 1982
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
as Self - Actor 2014
I Knew Her Well
as Italo - The garage attendant 1965
Keoma
as Keoma 1976
The Mercenary
as Sergei Kowalski, The Polish 1968