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Sergio Franchi, Popular Singer on Stage and TV

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Sergio Franchi, the handsome, personable Italian-born tenor who aspired to opera but instead became famous in nightclubs and on records, died Tuesday at his estate on Long Island Sound.

He was believed to be 57. His brother-in-law, Peter Catalano, told United Press International from New York that Franchi--who had been treated for a brain tumor last year--died of cancer.

Born in Cremona, Italy, Franchi moved with his family to South Africa when he was a youth, where he studied to be an engineer while training in opera.

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He performed in South Africa in “La Traviata,” “La Boheme” and “Carmen” and left there to further his classical career. But in Italy, England and later the United States, he found frustration rather than steady employment and turned to television, where he became a frequent guest on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

From that came appearances in such films as “The Secret of Santo Vittoria,” a 1969 adaptation of the best-selling novel, and a Broadway starring role in “Do I Hear a Waltz?”

More recently he appeared in the Tony-award winning musical “Nine,” where he portrayed the troubled hero, film director Guido Contini, a role originated by Raul Julia on Broadway. The play was based on Federico Fellini’s surrealistic 1963 film “8 1/2.”

Franchi also became a headliner in Las Vegas, where he appeared regularly in the 1960s and ‘70s at the Flamingo, the Sahara and the MGM Grand, blending popular standards and operatic arias.

Locally, he was seen at the Century Plaza, the old Cocoanut Grove and in “Nine” at the Music Center.

He recorded about 25 albums and sang at the White House at the request of former President Ronald Reagan. In the mid-1970s Franchi was the singing voice on TV commercials for the Plymouth Volare, and in his later years he had also become something of a watercolorist.

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Franchi died at his home in the historic and picturesque shoreline community of Stonington, Conn., on the Rhode Island border, where he had lived for a number of years with his wife, Eva. He also is survived by a daughter, a son, two grandchildren and two sisters.

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