Frank Braña (born Francisco Braña Pérez; 24 February 1934 – 13 February 2012) was a Spanish character actor.

Biography

He was born Francisco Braña Pérez in Pola de Allande, Asturias, Spain on 24 February 1934. Also credited as Frank Blank, Francisco Brana, Frank Brana, Frank Branya, Francisco Braña and Paco Braña, his career has been mostly based in Spanish and Italian movies of the spaghetti Western, horror and sword-and-sandal genres, having worked in more than 200 productions from the early 1960s, not always as a supporting actor. He appeared in the Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone: Per un pugno di dollari (1964), he played Blackie in Per qualche dollaro in più (1965), and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966). He appeared in Sunscorched (film) (1965) along Vivien Dodds, Óscar Pellicer and Luis Induni. He appeared in And the Crows Will Dig Your Grave (1971) and Dallas (1972), by John Wood, Django Does Not Forgive (1967), by Julio Buchs, Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1967), by Giulio Questi, If You Shoot... You Live!, by Javier Elorrieta, and Three Supermen of the West (1974), by Italo Martinenghi. He played Dan Robinson in Kilma, Queen of the Amazons (1976). He played Prince in Perseus Against the Monsters (1963) in a supporting role along Antonio Molino Rojo and Lorenzo Robledo, in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) along Benito Stefanelli, Antonio Molino Rojo, Fabio Testi and Spartaco Conversi, federal agent Sam Puttnam in Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming (1970) along Massimo Serato, Nieves Navarro and José Jaspe, and Battle of the Amazons (1973) along Alberto Dell'Acqua, Benito Stefanelli and his son Marco. One of his last film was Tiovivo c. 1950 (2004), by José Luis Garci, which received a nomination for Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He continued working in spite of suffering from silicosis. In September 2007 he published the autobiography Morir con dignidad en el cine. In September 2011 he was awarded at I Festival Internacional de Cine Western alongside Craig Hill and Teresa Gimpera, Eugenio Martin, Rafael Romero Marchent, Cándida López (widow of Aldo Sanbrell), Antonio Pica, Dan van Husen, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Saturno Cerra, Fabio Testi and Al Matthews. On 13 February 2012, 3:15 pm, Brana died from respiratory failure at a hospital in Madrid, Spain, he was 11 days away of his 78th birthday.

Selected filmography