Appearances

Title	Role	Year	Approx. Age
Salo 120 Days of Sodom	Male Victim	1975	18
Salo 120 Days of Sodom Blu-Ray	Male Victim	1975	18
Arabian Nights 1974	Nur Ed Din	1974	17
Arabian Nights 1974 Blu-Ray	Nur Ed Din	1974	17

Franco Merli was born in 1957 in the town of Corleone, Sicily. In 1973, famous Italian poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini discovered the youngster. The 16-year-old was working as a gas station attendant at that time (as Ninetto Davoli, a friend of Pasolini and actor in most of his films, recounts). Pasolini was searching for a young man to play the lead in his upcoming feature Arabian Nights 1974. The director immediately knew that Franco Merli, with his small but muscular physique, dark Mediterranean looks, and ready smile, was the perfect choice for the role of Nur Ed Din.

Arabian Nights was an international success and Merli got a taste for the film business. Following his debut he appeared (his hair dyed blond) in La Collegiale 1975, a rather stupid soft-sex-comedy that did little for his reputation other than showing that he was able to play an unsympathetic character.

In 1975 Pasolini hired him once again, for the role of one of the male victims in his infamous Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma 1975 or the 120 Days of Sodom. In this film, Merli was, like the other non-professional actors, addressed by his real first name, Franco. The director chose Merli once again, not only because he embodied the "Pasolini-type" to a fault but also because the young actor had already proven in Arabian Nights that he was perfectly comfortable appearing nude in front of a camera. In a way, Salo made Franco's face immortal since one of the most highly publicised images of the film was the close-up of young Merli as his tongue is cut out in the final torture scenes. Another famous still (from the scene where the victims are forced to pose as dogs) prominently showed Franco naked, on all fours, only 'wearing' a dog collar - a fact that didn't help further his career.

In 1976, Franco Merli appeared on-screen as Fernando, the son of Nino Manfredi, who earns his money as a transvestite prostitute in Down and Dirty 1976 (Brutti sporchi e cattivi). This brilliant social satire by Italian director Ettore Scola was also Franco Merli's swan song as an actor. Incidently, it is probable that he secured the role of Fernando thanks to his connection with Pasolini, since the director not only was a friend of Scola but also had been supposed to write a foreword to the film - but Pasolini was murdered before this came to pass.

Since Merli's mentor had died and his choice of roles (or perhaps the ones he got offered) had been a rather off-beat one, he soon didn't find work in the industry anymore, even though he had shown himself to be a versatile actor with a range from pure innocence to debauchery. And the fact that, as said above, he had become the "face" and "body" of Salo probably didn't help, either. It is not known but highly probable that he returned to his native isle, Sicily, to live a life away from the public.