Franco Zeffirelli (b. 12 February 1923) is an Italian film director. He is also an opera director, designer and producer of opera, theatre, film and television, and a politician.
Internationally, he is known for having directed the 1968 film version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, for which he was nominated to receive an Academy Award. His 1977 television mini-series Jesus of Nazareth also won acclaim and is still shown on Easter weekend in ma...
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Franco Zeffirelli (b. 12 February 1923) is an Italian film director. He is also an opera director, designer and producer of opera, theatre, film and television, and a politician.
Internationally, he is known for having directed the 1968 film version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, for which he was nominated to receive an Academy Award. His 1977 television mini-series Jesus of Nazareth also won acclaim and is still shown on Easter weekend in many countries. Zeffirelli has been a member of the Italian senate since 1996, representing the Forza Italia party. In 2008, Forza Italia dissolved into The People of Freedom.
Zeffirelli was born in Florence as Gianfranco Corsi, the illegitimate son of a mercer. When he was six years old his mother died and he subsequently grew up under the auspices of the British expatriate community and was particularly involved with the so-called Scorpioni, who inspired his semi-autobiographical 1999 film Tea With Mussolini.
During World War II he fought as a...
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