Italian actress Franca Bettoia, who starred alongside Vincent Price in the 1964 cult sci-fi film The Last Man on Earth, has passed away in Rome at the age of 88, her family confirmed to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.
Bettoia was married to Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi, who starred in the 1978 film La Cage aux Folles, from 1972 until his death in 1990.
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In The Last Man on Earth, Bettoia played Ruth, a woman who, with the help of Price’s Dr. Robert Morgan, tries to survive a plague that has turned humans into vampiric creatures.
The film, directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, was based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend. Bettoia was born in Rome on May 14, 1936, and began her film career in 1955.
She had her breakout role in Pietro Germi’s Man of Straw (1958), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Bettoia also starred in several other films, including Duel of Champions (1961), Day by Day, Desperately (1961), Will Our Heroes Succeed in Finding Their Friend Who Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa? (1968), and Don’t Touch the White Woman (1974).
Her final film was Teste rasate (1993), in which she played the mother of her real-life son, Gianmarco Tognazzi.
Bettoia is survived by her daughter, Maria Sole Tognazzi, a director, and her son, Gianmarco Tognazzi.