Mario Lanfranchi was an Italian film, theater, and television director, screenwriter, and producer. After graduating from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Milan (Accademia dei Filodrammatici) in the early 1950s, he was hired by Sergio Pugliese at RAI, at the onset of Italian television. Lanfranchi was the first to bring opera to the small screen in 1956 with Madama Butterfly, introducing a wide audience to the American soprano Anna Moffo. He directed several films, including Libido (1965) and Death Sentence (1968),