UCI Film Program Founder Dies of Cancer

Franco Tonelli, founding director of UC Irvine’s film studies program, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer, university officials said Tuesday. He was 56.

Tonelli died Jan. 22 at his Laguna Beach home. Burial was scheduled this week in Rome.

A professor of French, drama and film studies, Tonelli was remembered Tuesday as a “great teacher” with a love for teaching and a unique ability to analyze films, said Linda Williams, acting director of UCI’s film studies program.

“He had an extraordinary ability to discover meaning in what might seem small visual details,” Williams said. “Students love to do imitations of their teachers, and students around here can still do a mean Franco Tonelli. . . . He was wonderfully enthusiastic.”

Tonelli won UCI’s distinguished teaching award in 1983.

Tonelli was a native of Italy who acted in several Italian theater companies before coming to the United States and earning a Ph.D in French from Louisiana State University. He arrived at UCI in 1966 and served for a time as chairman of the department of French and Italian.

He later founded the film studies program and served as its director from 1975 to 1984. While a visiting professor at UCLA’s College of Arts from 1986-87, he was the script writer and literary director of the 1986 production “Hollywood’s Salute to Pirandello” at the James A. Doolittle Theater in Los Angeles. At UCLA, he helped to found the university’s Center for Advanced Research in the Performing Arts.

Tonelli is survived by his wife, Beverly J. Delong-Tonelli, a professor at Cal State Long Beach; his parents, Tonio and Amelia Tonelli; a brother, Bruno Tonelli, and sisters Paola and Piera Tonelli, all of Rome.

A memorial screening will be held in March of one of Tonelli’s favorite films: “French Cancan/Only the French Can” by French director Jean Renoir, Williams said.

In lieu of flowers, family members asked that donations be made to the Franco Tonelli Memorial Prize for the outstanding student essay on film studies. Contributions should be sent care of the Humanities Development Office, 107 Humanities Annex, University of California, Irvine, Calif., 92717.