Francesca Santoro(I)
- Actress
After playing Aggie in The Great Dictator and participating in several
other films, Francesca Santoro grew up in Los Angeles, went to Holland
to study voice at the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music, and married
Freddy L'hoir with whom she had five children: Alwyn, René Paul, Robin,
Emile, and Aaron. In 1970, she went back to school as an undergraduate,
attending the University of California (Irvine and Berkeley). In 1981,
she won a Fulbright Scholarship to Rome, where she lived for seven
years. In 1988, she earned her PhD in Ancient History and Classical
Languages. The author of two published academic books on Roman
Historiography, Francesca won the Rome Prize and was elected as a
Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, 1997. Still teaching in
California, she reserves her acting for the classroom.
