Director

Michael Franzese

Writing

Career Snapshot

Explained

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Directed credits

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Beginning to build directing work.

TMDB popularity

0.1

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Directed movies: 0Directed series: 0All crew credits: 4

TMDB ID: 1557898

Known for: Writing

Born: May 27, 1951

Age: 75

Place of birth: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Gender: Male

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 1983 - 2021

Years active: 39

Average TMDB rating: 5.92

Also known as

Michael Franzese Sr. • Michael Grillo

Frequent jobs

Executive Producer (3)Writer (1)

TMDB TMDB

Biography

Michael Franzese (born May 27, 1951) is an American former New York mobster and caporegime of the Colombo crime family, and son of former underboss John Franzese. Franzese was enrolled in a pre-med program at Hofstra University, but dropped out to make money for his family after his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery in 1967. He eventually helped implement a scheme to defraud the federal government out of gasoline taxes in the early 1980s. By the age of 35, in 1986, Fortune Magazine listed Franzese as number 18 on its list of the "Fifty Most Wealthy and Powerful Mafia Bosses". Franzese had claimed that at the height of his career, he was making up to $8 million per week. In 1986, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison on conspiracy charges, released in 1989, rearrested in 1991 for a parole violation, and ultimately released in 1994. Soon after, he retired to California and is now a motivational speaker and writer.

Movies