Italian actress Franca Rame dead at 84

Veteran Italian actress Franca Rame has died at the age of 84. Rame, the wife and muse of Nobel prize winning playwright Dario Fo, passed away on Wednesday (29May13) in Milan, Italy after a long illness, according to local reports.
Born into a family with long-standing ties to the stage, Rame gravitated towards acting and met Fo when they were attached to the same theatre company.
They married in 1954 and together they formed the Dario Fo–Franca Rame Theatre Company in 1958, with Fo as the director and writer, and Rame the leading actress and administrator.
Throughout a career spanning more than half a century, Rame and Fo created and produced many political satire performances for the Italian stage, as well as radio and television.
Rame was elected a member of the Italian Senat in 2006 to represent the Italia dei Valori (Italy of Values) party but resigned two years later in disagreement with the policies of the then centre-left government.
She is survived by Fo and their son Jacopo.