Mario Lanfranchi (30 June 1927 – 3 January 2022) was an Italian film, theatre, and television director, screenwriter, producer, collector, and actor.

Career

Lanfranchi was born in Parma. After receiving a degree at the Drama Academy (Accademia dei Filodrammatici) of Milan in the early 1950s, he was hired by Sergio Pugliese at RAI, at the onset of Italian television. He was the first to bring opera to the small screen, in 1956, with Madama Butterfly, by Giacomo Puccini, which introduced to a wide public Anna Moffo, at that time an unknown American soprano, who became his wife for 17 years. In 1967 he began his career as a film director with the western movie Death Sentence. He lived in a 16th-century villa in Santa Maria del Piano outside Parma (Villa Lanfranchi). Lanfranchi died in Langhirano, near Parma, on 3 January 2022, at the age of 94.

Opera TV productions and films

Other interests

Lanfranchi was a well-known owner of greyhounds, owning the prefix 'El'. He owned several significant greyhounds including the UK open race win record holder El Tenor.