- Born
- Died
- After graduating from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Milan (Accademia dei Filodrammatici) in the early 1950s, and a few experiences directing plays and operas, Mario Lanfranchi was hired at RAI, at the onset of Italian television. He was therefore a pioneer of Italia television and the first one to bring opera to the small screen, in 1956, with "Madama Butterfly", which did rise Anna Moffo to the rank of diva in the brief space of one night. He was meanwhile very active in the theater as a director and producer. In the early Sixties Mario left the Italian Television (coming back occasionally for some inaugurations, like Rai-TV Channel 2, Eurovision, the new Naples studios) and returned to the stage, directing and producing several works by English and American playwrights, premiering a number of plays and musicals. He wrote and produced "Festa Italiana", a colossal show with 120 performers, which broke box-office records at the Madison Square Garden of New York. At that same time, Mario began his career as a film director with the western Death Sentence (1968), followed by several other movies of different genres. In 1980 he moved to London, where he lived for 25 years, staging big musicals like "Lust" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" or plays like David Beaird's "900 Oneonta" at London's Old Vic and Daphne du Maurier's "September Tide" with Susannah York, which ran for years in the West End and Broadway. In 2005 Mario moved back to Italy, where he lived in a 16th century villa near Parma. He still enjoyed staging plays and giving recitals in the little theatre of the villa, periodically opening the doors to anybody.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ninnanonna
- SpouseAnna Moffo(December 8, 1957 - 1972) (divorced)
- First husband of Anna Moffo.
- He is also a theatre and television director, producer, collector and actor.
- He is a well-known collector, in the past has owned some legendary collections of old paintings and sculptures, illustrated rare books, antique fountain pens, all from him lovingly assembled piece by piece, now of period iron work and locks, gold and silver rattles, antique copper kitchen utensils, hand-crafted artisan furniture pieces, collections that pay respect to his new belief in artisan craftsmanship.
- He is a very good billiards player and precision shooter (shooting sport and clay pigeon shooting).
- During his stay in London, he developed a passion for greyhound racing, soon becoming the most prominent owner in the U.K. The media used to call him "the sheykh Mohamed of the dogs" (Sheykh Mohamed is considered the biggest racehorse owner in the world). His famous greyhound El Tenor, the most prolific winner of all time, made the front page of English newspapers and the Corriere della Sera in Italy. Italian publisher Franco Maria Ricci introduced Lanfranchi for a lecture as "the only case known of a man supported by a dog".
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