Thomas Andrew Franco (born April 14, 1980) is an American actor, artist, and the founder of the Firehouse Art Collective in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

. He is the brother of actors

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007), ''Milk (2008 American film), Milk'' (200 ...

and

Dave Franco David John Franco (born June 12, 1985) is an American actor and filmmaker. He began his career with small roles in films such as '' Superbad'' (2007) and '' Charlie St. Cloud'' (2010). Following a starring role in the final season of the comed ...

Early life and education

Franco was born in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. His mother, Betsy Lou (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Verne), is a writer and occasional actress. His father, Douglas Eugene Franco (died 2011), ran a

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

business, and was a "philanthropic entrepreneur". Franco's father was of Portuguese (

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

n) and Swedish descent."James Franco",

Inside the Actors Studio ''Inside the Actors Studio'' is an American talk show that airs on Ovation. The series premiered on June 12, 1994 on Bravo, airing for 22 seasons and was hosted by James Lipton from its premiere until 2018. It is taped at the Michael Schimmel ...

, December 7, 2010. Franco's mother is from a family of

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...

ancestry; her parents had changed the surname from "Verovitz" to "Verne." Tom is the middle child of three brothers; the older is actor, director, writer, and artist

and the younger is actor and director

. They were raised in Palo Alto. Franco is a graduate of

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School (commonly referred to locally as "Paly") is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two high schools in the district, the ...

, class of 1998. He graduated in 2002 from

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

majoring in fine art, then attended

California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, majoring in ceramics.

Career

Franco started acting professionally with his role as Frog Boy in the comedy horror film ''

Basket Case 2 ''Basket Case 2'' is a 1990 American comedy horror film written and directed by Frank Henenlotter, and the sequel to his 1982 film '' Basket Case''. It stars Kevin Van Hentenryck reprising his role as Duane Bradley, who moves with his deformed, ...

'' (1990). He subsequently appeared in ''A Peace of History'' (2005) and ''The Devil Wears a Toupee'' (2007). He had a small role in ''

The Disaster Artist ''The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made'' is a 2013 non-fiction book written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell, in which the former details the troubled development and production of the panned 2003 cult ...

'' (2017), as a crew member on ''

The Room ''The Room'' is a 2003 American independent romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by Tommy Wiseau, who also stars in the film alongside Juliette Danielle and Greg Sestero. Set in San Francisco, the film is centered around a ...

'', in which his brothers played the lead roles (James as

Tommy Wiseau Thomas Pierre Wiseau (born October 3, 1955) ( or ; born Tomasz Wieczorkiewicz ) is a Polish Americans, Polish-American actor and filmmaker. He is best-known for writing, producing, directing, and starring in the 2003 film ''The Room'', which ...

and Dave as

Greg Sestero Greg Sestero (born July 15, 1978) is an American actor, filmmaker, model and author. He is best known for his role as Mark in the 2003 cult film ''The Room'', as well as for his well-received memoir '' The Disaster Artist'', detailing his experie ...

). Franco is the founder and co-director of Berkeley's Firehouse Art Collective. He shared directorship with his wife Julia Lazar Franco, who died in 2014.

Personal life

Franco's first wife, Julia Lazar, worked closely with him. Her death was a result of liver failure (brought on by

hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection period, people often have mild or no symptoms. Early symptoms can include ...

and

liver cancer Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...

) and kidney trouble. The two were married in a hospital solarium about a month before her death. In 2021, Franco married Iris Torres, a film producer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Franco, Tom 1980 births Living people 21st-century American male actors American male film actors American male television actors American people of Portuguese descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Swedish descent Place of birth missing (living people) Jewish American male actors Male actors from Palo Alto, California People of Madeiran descent University of California, Santa Cruz alumni California College of the Arts alumni Palo Alto High School alumni 21st-century American Jews