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Is James Franco Jewish?

James Franco is a Jew. Franco is known for his roles in the Spider-Man trilogy, Pineapple Express, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

James Franco is a Jew. Franco was born in Palo Alto, California. His mother, Betsy Lou (née Verne) is Jewish. She is a writer and actress. Franco's father, Douglas Eugene "Doug" Franco (d. 2011), ran a Silicon Valley business. James Franco's Jewish family on his mother's side were Russian Jewish immigrants.


The Jewish actor who had a lead part on the short-lived cult hit television program Freaks and Geeks later played James Dean (2001), for which he was awarded a Golden Globe Award. He also played Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.

James Franco's notable films include Pineapple Express, Milk, 127 Hours, Tristan & Isolde, Annapolis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and 2013 releases Oz the Great and Powerful, Spring Breakers, This Is the End, and Lovelace. He also had a recurring role in the ABC soap opera General Hospital. For his role in 127 Hours, Franco received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Franco was born in Palo Alto, California. His mother, Betsy Lou, is a poet, author, and editor, and his father, Douglas (1948–2011), ran a non-profit agency and a shipping container security company. Franco's father was of Portuguese and Swedish descent. Franco's mother is Jewish, a descendant of immigrants from Russia. Despite his Jewish heritage, Franco's upbringing was largely secular.

Franco has a big interest in education. He has attended UCLA, and he moved to New York to simultaneously attend graduate school at Columbia University's MFA writing program, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for filmmaking, and Brooklyn College for fiction writing, while occasionally commuting to North Carolina's Warren Wilson College for poetry. He received his MFA from Columbia in 2010. Franco is a PhD student in English at Yale University and will also attend the Rhode Island School of Design.

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