Tom Franco is the less famous of the Francofrères – actors Dave Franco and James Franco. Like his brothers, Tom is also an actor. However, the second brother is more active as an artist. He is the founder of the Firehouse Art Collective in Berkeley, California. Read on for more facts about the lesser-known Franco brother.
Tom Franco Facts/Bio/Brothers
Tom Franco was born on April 14, 1980 in Palo Alto, California, as the second son of Betsy Lou (née Verne) and Douglas Eugene Franco, of Portuguese (Madeiran) and Swedish descent.
The Franco family is known for its affinity for the arts. Franco’s mother, Betsy, of Russian Jewish descent, is a writer and occasional actress who enjoys painting in her spare time.
Her father, who died in 2011, ran a Silicon Valley business but also enjoyed painting. “In my family, you were never cool, you never had anything good to say, except to talk about art,” the curly-haired curly brother once told Diablo Magazine.
However, the history of the arts of the Francos dates even further back. His grandparents ran the Verne Gallery in Cleveland. The gallery that in 2015 hosted Tom and James’ “A California Childhood” exhibit is now run by his uncle.
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Like his brother, Tom was raised in Palo Alto, He attended Palo Alto High School in California, where he graduated in 1998. His love for painting began in his teens when he often painted at sides of James. At age 15, he and James began taking drawing lessons at the local art center. They were the youngest in the class.
“We were the youngest in the class, looking at nude characters and drawing them and being like… ‘It’s weird,’ Tom told W Magazine in a 2017 interview. were growing up, Tom was more interested in painting, increasingly choosing ceramic sculpture.
He attended the University of California, SantaCruz, graduating in 2002 with a degree in fine arts. Tom then undertook master’s studies in ceramics at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. However, he never managed to graduate as boredom with the tutoring method forced him to drop out of school. Soon after, Franco collaborated with a group of his classmates to found Firehouse Art Collective in Berkeley, California.
Additionally, Tom sits on the Board of Brother James James Elysium Bandini Studios, a philanthropic film studio and streaming platform.
Tom Franco acting career
Like his mother Betsy, Tom Franco is an occasional actor. His professional acting career began in 1990 when he made his debut in the comedy horror film Basket Case 2 (1990). His other films include A Peace of History (2005) and The Devil Wears a Toupee (2007).
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He made guest appearances in his brother James’ films including: Spring Breakers and Rise of the Apes (2011). In 2017, Tom appeared alongside his brothers James and Dave on The Disaster Artist. The film, directed by James, also features Zac Efron, Bryan Cranston, as well as Dave’s wife, Alison Brie.
Net worth of Tom Franco
The Franco brothers have indeed made a fortuneOf their talents as artists, the richest among them is perhaps the eldest son, James Franco, whose net worth is estimated at $30 million. James can receive as much as a 7-figure paycheck for a single movie role.
Tom has managed to stay under the radar for so long, only surfacing in recent years. It is unclear how much his daily work as a sculptor earns him, but some sources put his net worth at $10 million. The latest brother Dave is also estimated at $10 million.
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Tom Franco wife, girlfriend
Tom was in a relationship with Julia Lazar Franco, a cameraman who died on August 25, 2014. She was 56 years old. Julia was born on November 7, 1957 in Vienna, Austria.
Although it’s unclear when they started dating, Franco married Julia in 2014 in a hospital solarium where she was undergoing treatment for liver cancer. Julia died about a month after her marriage to Franco.
She worked with Tom at his Firehouse Art Collective. In 2012, she directed the documentary Hart Crane: An Exegesis.
