Guillermo Francella

"Francella" redirects here. For other uses, see Nicolás Francella.

Guillermo Francella
Guillermo Francella in 2016
Born	(1955-02-14) February 14, 1955 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Years active	1984 – present

Guillermo Francella (born February 14, 1955) is an Argentine actor and comedian. Apart from being a television performer, he also has had a long theatrical and film career. Widely regarded by experts and critics of performance as one of the most influential and popular actors in his country.

Life and work

Born in Buenos Aires, Francella made his television debut in 1984, participating in Historia de un trepador (A Golddigger's Story). In 1985, he made his first feature film, El telo y la tele (Telo and Tele). He also participated in the television series, El infiel (The Cheating Man) as Felipe during that year. 1986 was a very busy year for Francella: he filmed three movies, including Camarero nocturno en mar del plata (Nightshift Steward at Mar Del Plata) and Las colegialas (College Girls), as well as one television series, named El lobo (The Wolf).

Francella's television and movie acting career continued on with movies as Los pilotos más locos del mundo (The World's Craziest Pilots), Paraíso Relax (Relax Paradise, released as Casa de Masajes in Argentina) and Bañeros II: la playa loca (Beach Bums II:Crazy Beach); as well as television series like De carne somos (We are Made of Flesh) and La familia Benvenutto. The aforementioned works were among Francella's acting experiences during the late 1980s.

In 1989, Francella participated in one of his biggest hits to date, Los Extermineitors, a comedy-action film that offered a satirical look at action movies such as Terminator and Rambo. Francella's next project was a sequel to that film. Extermineitors II, la venganza del dragón, filmed in 1990, was Francella's first acting job of the 1990s. In 1990, he also played a character whose name was a pun on his ("Francachella") in the Brigada Cola (Last Brigade), a comic television series. Two more sequels to Los Extermineitors followed, Extermineitors III: la gran pelea final and Extermineitors IV: Como hermanos gemelos, whose central argument was largely a parody of the classic Schwarzenegger/DeVito comedy Twins. After the release of the last film of the saga Francella took some time off from acting on screen.

When he returned to act in front of the cameras, international interest in his shows and movies had grown, and his first work in three years, 1997's Naranja y media, was released in various English-speaking countries, under the name of My Better Halves. His next movie, 1998's Un Argentino en New York, was filmed in Spain and the United States. It was also a major Argentine cinema hit. In 2000, he participated in one of Telefe's most viewed shows, Papá es un ídolo, a show that would also reach English-speaking countries under the name of Daddy is my Idol.

Francella began acting in 2001 in what perhaps may be his career's defining work: the Telefe live television sketch comedy and variety show Poné a Francella (Put on Francella), where he hosted and starred in the comic sketches. As of 2004, the series was being televised for the third year in a row; in Latin America, for a television series (not including telenovelas) to last longer than one year, it has to be considered a major hit. Poné a Francella reached the United States by DirecTV satellite transmissions.

Cuban president Fidel Castro, upon learning that the 2003 movie, Un día en el paraíso (A Day in Paradise) was to include Francella, gave the producers full permission to film the movie in Fidel's Cuba. Francella played two characters in that movie, Reynaldo and Roy. He returned to slapstick comedy in 2005 with Papá se volvió loco (Daddy's Gone Mad!), and in the theatre with his local production of Young Frankenstein.

In 2005 he acted on the TV show Casados con hijos, a local remake of Married... with Children -playing the role of Pepe Argento, the argentinian equivalent version of Al Bundy- that was a big success in his country.

In the more recent years Francella has garnered critical acclaim due to his performance in the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, El secreto de sus ojos (2009). The film marks both his first dramatic role in film and a drastic departure from his established TV figure - as well as his first collaboration with director Juan José Campanella. His most recent film is Los Marziano. As of 2011, he stars in the miniseries El hombre de tu vida, which was created and also directed by Campanella.

Works

Francella (second from left with Juan José Campanella, Argentine president (2007-2015) Cristina Kirchner, Soledad Villamil, and Ricardo Darín with The Oscar for The Secret in Their Eyes

Movies

Movies
Year	Movie	Character	Director
1973	Los caballeros de la cama redonda	Extra	Gerardo Sofovich
1985	El Telo y la Tele	Diputado	Hugo Sofovich
1986	Brigada explosiva	Ladrón de banco	Enrique Dawi
1986	Camarero Nocturno en Mar del Plata	Salvador	Gerardo Sofovich
1986	Las colegialas se divierten	Professor	Fernando Siro
1987	Johny Tolengo, el majestuoso		Gerardo Sofovich y Enrique Dawi
1987	Los Bañeros más Locos del Mundo	Guillermo	Carlos Galettini
1988	Los Pilotos más Locos del Mundo	Professor Lungo	Carlos Galettini
1988	Paraíso Relax		Emilio Boretta
1989	Bañeros II, la playa loca	Guillermo	Carlos Galettini
1989	Los extermineitors	Guillermo	Carlos Galettini
1990	Yo Tenía un Plazo Fijo	Pancho	Emilio Boretta
1990	Extermineitors II, la venganza del dragón	Guillermo	Carlos Galettini
1991	Extermineitors III, la gran pelea final	Guillermo	Carlos Galettini
1991	El travieso	Julio Mustafá	Ismael Hase y Eduardo Rolondo
1992	Extermineitors IV, como hermanos gemelos	Guillermo	Carlos Galettini
1998	Un Argentino en New York	Franco de Ricci	Juan José Jusid
1999	Esa maldita costilla	Taxista	Juan José Jusid
2000	Papá es un Ídolo	Pablo	Juan José Jusid
2003	Un día en el paraíso	Reynaldo/Roy	Juan Bautista Stagnaro
2005	Papá se volvió loco	Juan	Rodolfo Ledo
2006	Bañeros III, Todopoderosos	Guillermo	Rodolfo Ledo
2007	Incorregibles	Pablo	Rodolfo Ledo
2008	Rudo y Cursi	Batuta	Carlos Cuarón
2008	Un novio para mi mujer	Empleado inmobiliaria	Juan Taratuto
2009	El secreto de sus ojos	Pablo Sandoval	Juan José Campanella
2011	Los Marziano	Juan Marziano	Ana Katz
2012	El vagoneta en el mundo del cine	Cameo	Maximiliano Gutiérrez
2012	¡Atraco!	Merello	Eduard Cortés
2013	Corazón de león	Leon	Marcos Carnevale
2014	El misterio de la felicidad	Santiago	Daniel Burman
2015	The Clan	Arquímedes Puccio	Pablo Trapero

TV

Year	TV Show	Character	Notes
1980	Los hermanos Torterolo
1982	Todos los días la misma historia	Butcher
1983	Matrimonios y algo más
1984	Historia de un trepador	Detective Barilati
1985	El infiel	Felipe
1986	El lobo	Lalo
1988	De carne somos	Butcher
1990	Dalo por hecho
1990-1995	Los Benvenuto	Guille
1992-1993	Brigada Cola	Francachella
1994-1995	Un hermano es un hermano	Bruno
1997	Naranja y media	Juan Guerrero
1999	Trillizos, dijo la partera	Marcelo/Luigi/Enzo Scarpelli
2000	Tiempo final	Martín/Miguel
2001	EnAmorArte	Profesor de remo	First Episode
2001-2002	Poné a Francella	Various characters
2003	Durmiendo con mi jefe	Oscar Tzisca
2004	La niñera	Sambucetti	Special Guest Star
2005-2006	Casados con hijos	José "Pepe" Argento
2005	Alejo y Valentina	As himself	Special Guest Star
2008	Vidas robadas	Claudio Kurtz	Special Guest Star
2009	Revelaciones	A psychologist
2011-2012	El hombre de tu vida	Hugo Bermúdez

External links

• Guillermo Francella at IMDb
• Guillermo Francella at Cinenacional.com (in Spanish)