‘Last Man on Earth’ Actress Was 88

Franca Bettoia, the Italian actress who starred reverse Vincent Value within the 1964 cult sci-fi movie The Final Man on Earth, has died in Rome, her household informed the Italian information company Adnkronos. She was 88.

Bettoia was married to Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi — he starred within the 1978 film La Cage aux Folles within the half performed by Robin Williams in Mike Nichols’ 1996 adaptation The Birdcage — from 1972 till his demise from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1990 at age 68.

In The Final Man on Earth, directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, Bettoia portrays Ruth, a lady who, with the assistance of Value’s Dr. Robert Morgan, is warding off the consequences of a plague that has turned people into vampiric creatures.

Filmed in Rome, produced by Robert L. Lippert and distributed by American Worldwide Footage, the film was primarily based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend. The creator then co-wrote the screenplay credited as Logan Swanson. (Will Smith starred within the 2007 adaptation directed by Francis Lawrence.)

Born in Rome on Could 14, 1936, Bettoia made her movie debut in 1955 and had her breakout position as “the opposite lady” in Pietro Germi’s Man of Straw (1958), which premiered on the Cannes Movie Competition.

She additionally starred with Alan Ladd in Duel of Champions (1961), co-directed by Terence Younger; in Day by Day, Desperately (1961), directed by Alfredo Giannetti; in Will Our Heroes Reach Discovering Their Buddy Who Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa? (1968); and in Don’t Contact the White Girl (1974).

Her final movie was Teste rasate (1993), during which she performed the mom of her real-life son, Gianmarco Tognazzi. Survivors additionally embody her daughter, Maria Sole Tognazzi, a director.