Guillermo Francella
Francella in 2025
Born	Guillermo Héctor Francella (1955-02-14)February 14, 1955 (age 70) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Occupations	Actor comedian
Years active	1973–present
Spouse	Marynés Breña ​ (m. 1989)​
Children	Nicolás Johanna

Guillermo Héctor Francella (Latin American Spanish pronunciation:[giˈʃeɾmofɾanˈtʃela]; born 14 February 1955) is an Argentine actor and comedian. Besides a long history of working as atelevision leading man, he also has a variedtheatrical andfilm career. Francella is widely regarded by experts and critics ofperformance as one of the most influential and popular actors of his country.^[1]

Guillermo Francella is the second of two brothers, children of Ricardo Héctor Francella, a bank employee, gym teacher and weightlifting coach atRacing Club and Adelina Redondo. He spent his first two years of life in Villa del Parque,Buenos Aires, Argentina and later the family moved toBéccar, a northern neighborhood ofGreater Buenos Aires where Francella lived for the rest of his childhood. The house was located next to that of his paternal grandparents, Domenico and Zaída; his grandfather was an Italian immigrant in Argentina who had arrived in Argentina fromFalconara Albanese,Calabria and whose original last name was Frangella.^[2]

He attended and received a bachelor's degree from the Institute June 20 ofSan Isidro,Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1972. Later, although he wanted to study theater, he continued studying journalism. He got a journalist's degree after studying for three years and later started working for the magazineGente, where he served as a journalist for three months before being fired. He also worked as a clothing seller in a store, as an insurance salesman and as a member of a real estate company with his uncle. His father died when Francella was twenty-six years old, which was "a very strong blow" to his family.

Francella is acatholic.

His first approach to acting was after finishing high school when he made a play with some classmates, the comedyCharlatanes by Julio F. Escobar. In the early 1980s he acted in a commercial forCinzano. He debuted on television in 1980, withLos hnos. Torterolo and then was part ofHistoria de un trepador. In 1985 he filmed his first film,El telo y la tele, also participated as an extra in the filmLos caballeros de la cama redonda starringAlberto Olmedo andJorge Porcel. He participated in other television series of the 1980s, such asEl infiel, playing the role of Felipe for a year. In 1986, he filmed three films, among themCamarero nocturno en Mar del Plata andLas colegialas. He also acted in television series, such asEl lobo andJuegos prohibidos. His career as a television and film actor continued during the following years with films such asLos pilotos más locos del mundo,Paraíso relax andBañeros II, la playa loca, which had its third part in 2006. His first big hit on television was telecomedyDe carne somos, broadcast byCanal 13 in 1988. After this strip he starred inDalo por hecho, broadcast byCanal 13, playing an Argentinechanta (a scammer). Francella also made two TV series that were very popular at the time,La familia Benvenuto andUn hermano es un hermano, withJavier Portales.

In 1989 he starred in one of his greatest successes on film, theaction comedyLos extermineitors, which worked mainly as a spoof on the action films of the 1980s. The following year, he filmedExtermineitors II, la venganza del dragón, the sequel and second part of the "Extermineitors saga" of comedy films; that same saga eventually became spawned into the 1992 action-comedy seriesBrigada Cola, anExtermineitors spinoff where Francella played the protagonist, Francachella.Brigada Cola was a big rating success that even became a short-lived theater version of the show with the same cast. During the early 1990s, Francella starred in two more sequels forLos extermineitors, with the saga coming to an end withthe fourth part in the southern summer of 1992. When he returned to work on TV his fame had grown exponentially, even internationally, which is why his next series,Naranja y media was translated into English and broadcast in several countries under the titleMy Better Halves. His next movie,Un Argentino en New York, was filmed inSpain andUnited States; starring alongside the Uruguayan actress/singerNatalia Oreiro, it became one of the greatestArgentine cinema hits.

1999 came with a new challenge as an actor, the seriesTrillizos, dijo la partera with the actressLaura Novoa. On this occasion, he had to play three Buenos Aires brothers, Luigi, Marcelo and Enzo, that integrated a classic family of Italian roots, but in turn, each with a different personality that characterized them. In 2000 he filmedPapá es un ídolo it was translated inEnglish with the name ofDaddy is My Idol in this movie Manuel Bandera and Millie Stegman. He returned to television in 2001, in one of the most definitive roles of his career, in the comic programPoné a Francella, where he took part in several sketches next to his cast. He had two seasons and aired until December 2002. There he shared the cast withGabriel Goity,Alberto Fernández de Rosa,Roberto Carnaghi,Florencia Peña,Andrea Frigerio,Mariana Briski, Manuel Wirtz, René Bertrand, Toti Ciliberto and Cecilia Milone and with newly emerged models such asPamela David,Luciana Salazar and Julieta Prandi. The repetitions were broadcast until 2006 during the weekends inArgentina, while in other countries ofLatin America andUnited States it was televised until the end of 2004. In 2003, he filmed inCuba,Un día en el paraíso, movie in which Guillermo Francella played two characters, Reynaldo and Roy. That year he starred in the unit comedy,Durmiendo con mi jefe, withLuis Brandoni broadcast byCanal 13.

His next movie,Papá se volvió loco, was released in 2005 and became a hit in theaters. From 2005 to 2006 he starred in the seriesCasados con Hijos, an Argentine remake ofMarried... with Children, playing the role of José "Pepe" Argento. For that role, in the first season, Asociación de Periodistas de la Televisión y la Radiofonía Argentinas awarded theMartín Fierro Award to the "Best Leading Actor in Comedy", and in the second season, he was nominated again but lost toFacundo Arana. During these two years, he starred withEnrique Pinti at the Lola Membrives theater inBuenos Aires and then at the AuditoriumMar del Plata the musical comedyThe Producers, a great success with both the public and critics. It was Francella's debut in the musical genre.

In 2007 he starred in a new comic film,Incorregibles, together with comedianDady Brieva and model Gisela Van Lacke. The film was a box-office success, but received negative reviews by the critics. In 2008, he made a special participation in the final chapter of thesoap operaVidas robadas which won theMartín Fierro de Oro Award 2008. At the end of the year, he traveled toMexico to starRudo y Cursi along with the Mexican actorsGael García Bernal andDiego Luna. In 2009, he starred alongsideRicardo Darín andSoledad Villamil inEl secreto de sus ojos which sold approximately two million tickets and became the most watched movie of the year, as well as the second most successful national film of all time in its country. The movie won anOscar for the best non-English speaking film.

In 2011, he returned to the small screen with the TV comedyEl hombre de tu vida, where he played the role of Hugo, a man affected by a midlife crisis who decides to work professionally as agigolo. In addition, along withArturo Puig, he starred in theAna Katz comedy filmLos Marziano. In 2012 saw the premiere of the comedy film¡Atraco!, starring Francella alongsideNicolás Cabré andAmaia Salamanca under the direction of Eduard Cortés, playing a fictionalPeronist named Merello. In addition, he had a small role in the filmEl vagoneta en el mundo del cine. In 2013, he starred in the Marcos Carnevale romantic film,Corazón de León, where he played León Godoy, a short-stature man who falls in love with Ivana Cornejo (Julieta Díaz) a divorced lawyer. For this interpretation he received his second nomination forSilver Condor Award, this time as Best Actor.

In 2014, he starred withInés Estévez andAlejandro Awada in the comedy-dramaEl misterio de la felicidad, directed byDaniel Burman. Francella plays the role of a man looking for his missing friend while falling in love with his friend's wife. In addition, Francella returned to the theater and starring alongAdrián Suar inDos pícaros sinvergüenzas, where he plays Lawrence Williams, a man who scams women together with his partner. In 2015 he starred inThe Clan, a crime thriller-historical film about the murders committed by the "Clan Puccio" in the early 1980s; Francella starred in the role ofArquimedes Puccio together withPeter Lanzani in the role ofAlejandro Puccio, and directed byPablo Trapero. The film was a box-office success and received an overall positive response by the critics.

Since 1989 he has been married to Marynés Breña, with whom he has two children,Nicolás Francella (born on October 22, 1990) and Johanna Francella (born on December 4, 1993).

• Guillermo Francella atIMDb
• Guillermo Francella atCinenacional.com(in Spanish) (archive)

• 1955 births
• Living people
• Argentine male stage actors
• Argentine male film actors
• Argentine television personalities
• Argentine people of Italian descent
• Male actors from Buenos Aires
• Argentine male comedians
• 20th-century Argentine male actors
• 21st-century Argentine male actors
• 20th-century Argentine comedians
• 21st-century Argentine comedians
• Comedians from Buenos Aires

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