Franco Lechner, best known as Bombolo

Franco Lechner, best known as Bombolo (22 May 1931 – 21 August 1987), was an Italian character actor and comedian. His life was full of surprises

Born in Rome into a humble family, a former peddler of dishes, Lechner was discovered in a tavern by Franco Castellacci and Pierfrancesco Pingitore, who entered him in their cabaret company “Il Bagaglino”. He got large popularity in cinema as the sidekick of Tomas Milian in a successful series of half-serious poliziottesco films directed by Bruno Corbucci. He was also a partner of Enzo Cannavale in a number of comedy films. He died at age 56 as a result of complications following a major surgical operation. Decades later, his characteristic slang, and particularly his distinctive “tze tze”, remain popular among the younger generations.

Thomas Milan and Bombolo, they were very good friends and here are a couple of Paras from the Milan interview

Tomas Milian on Bombolo, the slaps and that “secret” gesture at the funeral

Tomas Milian, remembering his friend Bombolo, spoke of the catchphrase of slapping in the movies and that gesture given ‘in secret’ at the actor’s funeral

Tomas Milian spoke about his friend Bombolo in the video interview that you can see below and told how the catchphrase of slaps in the movies was born and that last affectionate greeting, given secretly, at the funeral of the Roman actor, who died in the 80s. Tomas Milian and Bombolo met for the first time on the set of Murder on the Tiber in a rather unusual way ” I had never seen Bombolo, I arrive on the set and I see this chubby guy who was holding a fork and knife in his hand asking for the dish if I remember correctly it was spaghetti alla matriciana “. Milian comes up with an idea and talks about it with the director of the film: ” I approach Bruno Corbucci and say to him ‘Bruno wouldn’t be bad if instead of spaghetti he asked for a pizza’ “, this is because, above all in Romanesco, pizza has the double meaning of dish and slap.

Tomas Milian got the idea looking at Bombolo’s face: ” He had cheeks that attracted slaps “. The director takes his protagonist’s idea for good and when Bombolo said “is this pizza coming? ” Tomas approached him and slapped him: ” It was a roar from the crew and Bombolo’s success began from there – the actor says in the video and then adds – the producers, when they realized that the audience laughed at every pizza given to Bambolo, they even made him give him 5 or 6 in each film “.

Tomas Milian reveals that at a certain point, they tried to change something: ” I went to Bruno and told him ‘this looks like an abuse of power’ “. The authors tried a different scene ” Bombolo who came out of my house and said ‘give me a ring on the phone’ and the marshal gave him the phone in his hand, but it didn’t work. The people, and Bombolo himself, wanted to be slapped “. Tomas recounts that sometimes his friend would approach him and say: “And you haven’t bullied me in a while, you have to do it because people like it “.

At the end of the video, Tomas Milian recounts what he did on the day of Bombolo’s funeral: ” I hid so as not to be seen and when the coffin passed in front of me I gave it one last little slap “.

Bombolo, whose real name was Franco Lechner, died in 1987 at the age of only 57, following a series of serious health problems that had undermined his physique. Tomas Milian passed away in 2017 at the age of 84. Bombolo made well over 50 feature films that I can remember..