Franco & Ciccio

Franco Franchi (actually Francesco Benenato , also as Franco Ferraù ; * September 28, 1928 in Palermo ; † December 9, 1992 in Rome ) and Ciccio Ingrassia (actually Francesco I ; * October 5, 1922 in Palermo; † April 28, 2003 in Rome) were an Italian comedian duo .

Franco Franchi

Franchi was born in the popular Vucciria neighborhood of Palermo, the eighth of 14 siblings. His mother worked in the tobacco factory, his father had a small fabric business, but the family was anything but wealthy.

At the age of four, Franchi is said to have entertained the entire residential area with jokes; he was known for it in the Sant'Onofrio area . After the third year of school, his parents took him out of school because he had to take care of the family. After the end of the Second World War, he joined the improvisation troupe of Salvatore Polara .

The lively little actor married in 1953 and finally met his long-time comic partner Ciccio Ingrassia a year later, with whom he played for the first time in a parody of the play " Cuore 'ngrato " at the Teatro Costa di Castelvetrano (Trapani) .

Ciccio Ingrassia

Until he met Franchi, little is known about Ingrassia's past. During the Second World War, the tall, lanky and wiry performer began acting and starred in the ensembles of Vico De Roll and Cecé Doria, mainly in Sicily.

Franco & Ciccio

The two actors formed a duo from 1954 onwards, in which Franchi was left with the role of the uneducated, shaggy man from the people, while Ingrassia was the more aristocratic, well-behaved citizen who mostly stoically endured the mishaps caused by Franchi. In the tradition of the Italian burlesque comedians , their appearances were also of a musical and acrobatic nature.

Franchi and Ingrassia got their first film role with the help of Domenico Modugno , who used them as sidekicks in his film Appuntamento ad Ischia (1960). From then on, the triumphant advance on Italian canvases was unstoppable. Initially still in guest appearances, the two comedians shot a total of around 120 films (42 in the years 1964–1966 alone). For the times, these films were mostly well-equipped and a huge hit with audiences, as the critics regularly panned them. In the 10 years from 1962 to 1972 her films grossed an average of 600 million lire (with production costs a little over 100 million). Only a fraction of their films ran (mostly in shortened versions and poor dubbing) in the German-speaking area.

In her films parodied them how any genre (all in imitation of Totò ) and met by Maciste over the pirates Barbanera on horror and western heroes , sometimes individual films (L'ultimo tango a Zagarol) . The humor of the two actors is often very violent, exaggerated and graphic and is referred to as "grotesque comedy". They often worked with directors such as Lucio Fulci , Gianni Grimaldi or Giorgio Simonelli .

Occasionally, they have also been used by reputable directors in "serious" films ( Federico Fellini , Elio Petri , Florestano Vancini ).

After the separation

Even after their separation in 1973, after Franchi still made a few films alone, they occasionally appeared together in films. Ingrassia established himself as a mature, serious actor who also did a lot of television work; towards the end of the 1970s, Franchi concentrated more on his songs and wrote skits again - he was also said to have connections to the Sicilian Mafia.

Franchi died in Rome on December 9, 1992. Ingrassia suffered a fatal heart attack ten and a half years later.