De Laurentiis, Dino 1919(?)–
De Laurentiis, Dino 1919(?)–
PERSONAL
Original name, Agostino De Laurentiis; born August 8, 1919 (some sources say 1918), in Torre Annunziata, Italy; immigrated to the United States, c. 1970 (some sources say 1973); son of Rosario Aurelio (a pasta manufacturer) and Giuseppina (maiden name, Salvatore) De Laurentiis; brother of Luigi De Laurentiis (a producer); uncle of Aurelio De Laurentiis (a producer); grandfather of Dino de Laurentiis (a filmmaker); married Silvana Mangano (an actress), July 17, 1949 (died, 1989); married Martha Schumacher (a producer), April 7, 1990; children: (first marriage) Federico (died, 1981), Veronica, Raffaella (a producer), Francesca; (second marriage) Carolyna, Dina. Education: Studied film at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Rome, 1937-39.
Addresses:
Office—Dino De Laurentiis Company, 100 Universal City Plaza, Bungalow 5195, Universal City, CA 91608.
Career:
Producer and studio executive. Real Cine, Turin, Italy, founder, 1941; Lux Films, executive producer, 1942; Ponti-De Laurentiis Productions, founder (with Carlo Ponti), 1950, affiliated with company, 1950-57; operated Dinocitta Studio in the 1960s; De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (sometimes referred to as DEG) Film Studios, Wilmington, NC, founder, 1983, affiliated with company, 1983-89; Embassy Pictures, chair and member of the board of directors, 1985; DEG Productions, founder, 1986, chief executive officer and president, 1986-88; De Laurentiis Entertainment, Ltd., Australia, founder, 1986, chief executive officer and president, 1986-88; Dino De Laurentiis Co., founder and principal, beginning 1988; Dino de Laurentiis Communications, founder, 1990; Dino De Laurentiis Company, Universal City, CA, chief executive officer. Contributor to periodicals, including American Cinematographer, American Film, Cine Revue, Film Comment, Film Francais, and Interview. Owner of the restaurants DDL Foodshow and DDL Bistro, New York City. Also worked as a pasta salesman and importer. Military service: Served in the Italian Army during World War II.
Awards, Honors:
Silver Lion Award, Venice International Film Festival, 1952, for Europa 51; Silver Ribbon Award (with Carlo Ponti), best producer, Italian National Syndicated of Film Journalists, 1954, and Academy Award and New York Film Critics Circle Award (with Ponti), both best foreign language film, 1956, all for La strada; Golden Globe Award, best foreign language film, 1956, for War and Peace; Golden David Award, best production, David di Donatello Awards, Academy Award, best foreign language film, 1957, Silver Ribbon, best producer, Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, 1958, all for Le notti di Cabiria; Golden David Award, David di Donatello Awards, 1959, for La tempesta; Academy Award nomination, best foreign language film, 1959, for La grande guerra; David di Donatello Award, best production, 1961, for Tutti a casa; Silver Ribbon Award, best producer, Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, 1961; David di Donatello Award, best production, 1966, for The Bible … In the Beginning; Golden Laurel Award nomination, best producer, Producers Guild of America, 1966; David di Donatello Award (with others), best production, 1968, for Banditi a Milano; David di Donatello Award (with others), best film, 1971, for Waterloo; Life Achievement Award, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, 1997; Pietro Bianchi Award, Venice Film Festival, 1999; Cinecitta Award, David di Donatello Awards, 2000; Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2001; "The General" Honorary Award, Sitges—Catalonian International Film Festival, 2002; Career Golden Lion Award, Venice Film Festival, 2003; Lifetime Achievement Award in Motion Pictures, Producers Guild of America, 2004; Career Award, Flaiano International Prize, 2002; 50th Anniversary David di Donatello Award, 2006.
CREDITS
Film Executive Producer:
Guendalina, 1957.
Io amo, tu ami (also known as J'aime, tu aimes and I Love, You Love), 1960.
Maciste contre il vampiro (also known as Goliath and the Island of Vampires, Maciste vs. the Vampire, The Vampires, and Goliath and the Vampires), 1961.
Il federale (also known as Mission ultra-secrete, Operation Idiot, and The Fascist), 1961.
Il commisario (also known as The Police Commissioner), 1962.
I due nemici (also known as The Best of Enemies), Columbia, 1962.
Mafioso, 1962.
(Uncredited) Battle of the Bulge, 1965.
Se tutte le donne del mondo (also known as If All the Women in the World, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, and Operazione paradiso), 1966.
Waterloo, Paramount, 1970.
Serpico, 1974.
Death Wish, Paramount, 1974.
Three Days of the Condor (also known as 3 Days of the Condor), Paramount, 1975.
Lipstick, Paramount, 1976.
Orca (also known as Orca: The Killer Whale, The Killer Whale, and La orca), Paramount, 1977.
The White Buffalo (also known as Hunt to Kill), United Artists, 1977.
King of the Gypsies, Paramount, 1978.
The Brink's Job (also known as Big Stickup at Brink's), Universal, 1979.
Conan the Barbarian, Universal, 1982.
The Bounty, Paramount, 1983.
The Dead Zone, Paramount, 1983.
Conan the Destroyer, Universal, 1984.
Dune, Universal, 1984.
Maximum Overdrive, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.
Tai-Pan, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.
King Kong Lives (also known as King Kong 2), De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1987.
Executive producer, Kuffs, Universal, 1992.
Army of Darkness (also known as Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3, Army of Darkness: The Ultimate Experience in Medieval Horror, Bruce Campbell vs. Army of Darkness, Captain Supermarket, Evil Dead 3, Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead, The Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness, and Medieval Dead), Universal, 1993.
Assassins (also known as Day of Reckoning), Warner Bros., 1995.
Film Producer:
Troppo tardi t'ho conosciuta, 1939.
L'amore canta (also known as Love Song), 1941.
Il miserie del Signor Travet, 1942.
Malombra, 1942.
Margherita fra i tre, 1942.
La donna della montagne, 1943.
Il bandito (also known as The Bandit), 1946.
Il cavaliere misterioso (also known as The Mysterious Cavalier and The Mysterious Rider), 1947.
Il passatore, 1947.
La figlia del capitano (also known as The Captain's Daughter), 1947.
Molti sogni per le strade (also known as Woman Trouble and The Street Has Many Dreams), 1948.
Riso amaro (also known as Bitter Rice), 1949.
Il lupo della Sila (also known as Lure of the Sila and The Wolf of the Sila), 1949.
I pompieri di Viggiu (also known as The Fireman of Viggiu), 1949.
Adamo ed Eva (also known as Adam and Eve), 1950.
Il brigante Musolini (also known as Outlaw Girl), 1950.
Romanticismo, 1950.
Accidenti alle tasse!! (also known as Accidents to the Taxes!!), 1951.
(With Carlo Ponti) Anna, IFE, 1951.
Botta e risposta, 1951.
Guardie e ladri (also known as Cops and Robbers), 1951.
L' ultimo incontro (also known as The Last Meeting), 1951.
Romanticismo, 1951.
Il padrone del vapore, 1951.
Toto terzo uomo (also known as Toto the Third Man), 1951.
Dov'e la liberta? (also known as Where Is Freedom?), 1952.
Fratelli d'italia (also known as Brothers of Italy), 1952.
Gli undici moschettieri (also known as The Eleven Musketeers), 1952.
I sette dell'orsa maggiore (also known as Hell Raiders of the Deep and Panique a Gilbraltar), 1952.
I tre cosari, 1952.
Jolanda, la figlia del corsaro nero (also known as Jolanda, the Daughter of the Black Corsair and Yolanda), 1952.
Toto a colori (also known as Toto in Color), 1952.
Anni facili (also known as Easy Years), 1953.
Il paese dei campanelli (also known as Ces voyous d'hommes and The Country of the Campanelli), 1953.
La lupa (also known as She Wolf and The Devil Is a Woman), 1953.
La tratta delle bianche (also known as Girls Marked for Danger, Ship of Condemned Women, and The White Slave Trade), 1953.
(With Carlo Ponti) Sensualita (also known as Two Nights with Cleopatra), Ultra, 1953.
(With Carlo Ponti) Le infedeli (also known as The Unfaithfuls), 1953.
Miseria e nobilta (also known as Poverty and Nobility), 1954.
Siluri umani (also known as Human Torpedoes and Torpilles humaines), 1954.
La romana (also known as The Woman of Rome and La belle Romaine), 1954.
(With Carlo Ponti) Attila (also known as Attila the Hun, Attila fleau de Dieu, and Attila, il flagello di Dio), 1954.
(With Carlo Ponti) Un giorno in pretura (also known as A Day in Court), 1954.
Dov'e la liberta? (also known as Where Is Freedom?), 1954.
Miseria e nobilita (also known as Poverty and Nobility), 1954.
(With Carlo Ponti) La strada (also known as The Road), 1954.
Un Americano a Roma (also known as An American in Rome), 1954.
Il coraggio, 1955.
Le diciottenni (also known as Eighteen Year Olds), 1955.
Mambo, Paramount, 1955.
Ragazze d'oggi (also known as La chasse aux marins and Girls of Today), 1955.
(With Carlo Ponti and William W. Schorr) Ulysses (also known as Ulisse), Paramount, 1955.
(With Carlo Ponti) La bella mugnaia (also known as The Miller's Beautiful Wife and The Miller's Wife), 1955.
L'oro di Napoli (also known as Every Day's a Holiday and Gold of Naples), Distributors Corp. of America, 1955.
La banda degli honesti, 1956.
Toto, Peppino, e … la malafemmina, 1956.
War and Peace (also known as Guerre e pace), Paramount, 1956.
Le notti di Cabiria (also known as Cabiria, Les nuits de Cabriria, and Nights of Cabiria), 1957.
Fortunella, 1957.
Malafemmina, 1957.
Barrage contre le Pacifique (also known as The Sea Wall, This Angry Age, and La diga sul Pacifico), Columbia, 1958.
Guardia, ladro e cameriera (also known as Maid, Thief, and Guard), 1958.
La tempesta (also known as Tempest and La Tempete), Paramount, 1958.
Fortunella, 1958.
La grande guerra (also known as La grande guerre and The Great War), 1959.
Giovanna e le altre (also known as Five Branded Women and Jovanka e le altre), Paramount, 1960.
Le pillole di Ercole (also known as Hercules Pills), 1960.
Sotto dieci bandiere (also known as Under Ten Flags), Paramount, 1960.
Tutti a casa (also known as La grande pagaille and Everybody Goes Home), 1960.
Ill gobbo (also known as Le bossu de Rome and The Hunchback of Rome), 1960.
Crimen (also known as Criminals, Killing in Monte Carlo, Chacun son alibi, and … And Suddenly It's Murder!), 1960.
(With Vittorio De Sica) Il giudizia universale (also known as The Last Judgment and Le jugement dernier), 1961.
Una vita difficile (also known as A Difficult Life), 1961.
Il re di Poggioreale (also known as Black City), 1961.
Barabbas (also known as Barabba), Columbia, 1962.
Il processo di Verona (also known as Le proces de Verone and The Verona Trial), 1962.
Le pillole di Ercole (also known as Hercules' Pills and Les pilules d'Hercule), 1962.
Il boom, 1963.
Il diavolo (also known as Amore in Stockholm, The Devil, and To Bed or Not to Bed), Continental Distributing, 1963.
Il giovedi (also known as The Thursday), 1963.
Il maestro di Vigevano (also known as The Teacher from Vigevano), 1963.
L'immortelle, Grove, 1963.
Cadavere per signora (also known as Corpse for the Lady and I due detectives), 1964.
Crazy Desire, Embassy, 1964.
Eighteen in the Sun, Goldstone, 1964.
Il disco volante (also known as The Flying Saucer), Dino De Laurentiis, 1964.
La mia signora (also known as My Wife), 1964.
I tre volti (also known as The Three Faces and Three Faces of a Woman), Dino De Laurentiis, 1965.
Le ore dell more (also known as The Hours of Love), Cinema V, 1965.
Menage all taliana (also known as Menage Italian Style), 1965.
An Orchid for the Tiger (also known as Le tigre se parfume a la dynamite, Our Agent Tiger, La tigre profumata all dinamite, and El tigre se perfuma condinamita), 1965.
The Railroad Man, Continental Distributing, 1965.
Thrilling, 1965.
The Bible … In the Beginning (also known as The Bible and La Bibbia), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1966.
Le streghe (also known as Les sorcieres and The Witches), 1966.
The Hills Run Red, United Artists, 1967.
Lo straniero (also known as The Stranger, Amare per vivere, and L'stranger), Paramount, 1967.
Matchless, United Artists, 1967.
My Wife's Enemy, Magna, 1967.
Navajo Joe, United Artists, 1967.
Anzio (also known as The Battle for Anzio and Lo sbarco di Anzio), Columbia, 1968.
Banditi a Milano (also known as Bandits in Milan and The Violent Four), Paramount, 1968.
Barbarella (also known as Barbarella, Queen of the Galaxy), Paramount, 1968.
The Bride Wore Black, Lopert, 1968.
Capriccio all taliana (also known as Caprice Italian Style), 1968.
Diabolik (also known as Danger: Diabolik and Danger: Diabolik!), Paramount, 1968.
L'mante di Gramigna (also known as Lyubovnitzite na Graminya and The Bandit), 1968.
Pierrot le fou, Pathe, 1968.
Roma come Chicago (also known as Bandits in Rome, Rome Like Chicago, and The Violent Four), 1968.
Romeo and Juliet, Paramount, 1968.
Fraulein Doktor (also known as The Betrayal, Fraeulein Doktor, and Gospodjica Doktor-Spijunka Bez Imena), 1968.
Barbagia (also known as The Tough and the Mighty and La societa del malessere), 1969.
The Brain, Paramount, 1969.
Io non scappo … fuggo, 1969.
Monte Carlo or Bust!, 1969.
Osvobozhdenie: Napravleniye glavnogo udara (also known as Liberation and The Direction of the Main Blow), 1969.
Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies, Paramount, 1969.
Una breve stagione (also known as A Brief Season), 1969.
Nerosubianco (also known as Black on White and The Artful Penetration of Barbara), 1969.
Il primo premio si chiama Irene (also known as Danimarca—L'incredible realta deall nuova morale and First Prize Irene), 1969.
Io non scappo fuggo, 1970.
La spina dorsale del diavolo (also known as The Deserter, The Devil Backbone, Ride to Glory, and Djavolja kicma), Paramount, 1970.
A Man Called Sledge (also known as Sledge), Columbia, 1970.
Waterloo, Paramount, 1970.
Io non vedo, tu no parli, lui non sente, 1971.
Causa di divorzio (also known as Cause of Divorce), 1972.
Lo scopone scientifico (also known as The Scientific Cardplayer and The Scopone Game), 1972.
Boccaccio, 1972.
The Valachi Papers (also known as Joe Valachi, Carteggio Valachi, Cosa Nostra, I segreti di Cosa Nostra, Joe Valachi: I segreti Cosa Nostra, and Le dossier Valachi), Columbia, 1972.
La piu bella serata della mia vita (also known as La plus belle soiree de ma vie and The Most Wonderful Evening of My Life), 1972.
The Stone Killer, Columbia, 1973.
(Uncredited) Valdez, il mezzosangue (also known as Valdez the Halfbreed, The Valdez Horses, Wild Horses, Caballos salvajes, and Chino), 1973.
Crazy Joe, Columbia, 1974.
Porgi l'ultra guancia (also known as Don't Turn the Other Cheek, Turn the Other Cheek, The Two Missionaries, I due missionari, and Les deux missionaires), Titanus, 1974.
Serpico, Paramount, 1974.
Uomini duri (also known as Three Tough Guys, Tough Guys, and Les durs), Paramount, 1974.
Neveroyatnye priklyucheniya italyantesev v Rossii (also known as Una matta, matta, matta corsa in Russia, and Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia), 1974.
(Uncredited) Death Wish, 1974.
Mandingo, 1975.
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, United Artists, 1976.
Casanova (also known as Fellini's "Casanova" and Il Casanova di Federico Fellini), Universal, 1976.
Drum, United Artists, 1976.
Face to Face (also known as Ansikte mot ansikte), Paramount, 1976.
King Kong, Paramount, 1976.
Mean Frank and Crazy Tony, Aquarius, 1976.
The Shootist, Paramount, 1976.
Das Schlangenei (also known as The Serpent's Egg), Paramount, 1977.
The Great Train Robbery, United Artists, 1979.
Hurricane (also known as Forbidden Paradise), Paramount, 1979.
Flash Gordon, Universal, 1980.
Halloween II, Universal, 1981.
Ragtime (also known as Love and Glory), Paramount, 1981.
Amityville II: The Possession, Orion, 1982.
Striking Back, 1982.
Amityville 3-D, Orion, 1983.
Firestarter, Universal, 1984.
Cat's Eye (also known as Stephen King's "Cat's Eye"), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1985.
Marie, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1985.
Red Sonja, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1985.
Stephen King's "Silver Bullet" (also known as Silver Bullet), Paramount, 1985.
Year of the Dragon, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1985.
Blue Velvet, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.
Crimes of the Heart, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.
Manhunter (also known as Red Dragon: The Pursuit of Hannibal Lecter and Red Dragon: The Curse of Hannibal Lecter), De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.
Raw Deal, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.
Trick or Treat, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986.
The Bedroom Window, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1987.
Date with an Angel, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1987.
From the Hip, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1987.
Hiding Out (also known as Adult Education), De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1987.
Million Dollar Mystery, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1987.
Rampage, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1987.
Collision Course, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1988.
Pumpkinhead, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1988.
Traxx (also known as Trax), De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1988.
Weeds, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1988.
Desperate Hours, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1990.
Once Upon a Crime (also known as Criminals, Over My Dead Body, Returning Napoleon, 7 Gauner und ein Dackel, Es war einmal ein Mord, and Troublemakers), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1992.
Body of Evidence (also known as Deadly Evidence), Dino De Laurentiis Communications, 1993.
Bound, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1996.
Unforgettable, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1996.
Breakdown, Paramount, 1997.
U-571, Universal, 2000.
Hannibal, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 2001.
Red Dragon (also known as Roter Drache), Universal, 2002.
Hannibal Rising (also known as Hannibal Lecter—Le origini del male and Hannibal Lecter—Les origines du mal), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 2007.
The Last Legion (also known as La derniere legion and L'ultima legione), Weinstein Company, 2007.
Virgin Territory, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 2007.
Film Coproducer:
Napoli milionaria (also known as Naples Millionaire and Side Street Story), 1950.
(As Dino de Laurentiis) La donna del fiume (also known as La fille du fleuve, The River Girl, and Woman of the River), 1955.
Film Associate Producer:
Europa 51 (also known as No Greater Love and The Greatest Love), 1952.
Film Production Supervisor:
Troppo tardi t'ho conosciuta (also known as I Met You Too Late), 1940.
L'ultimo combattimento (also known as The Last Fight), 1941.
Film Production Manager:
L'amore canta (also known as Love Song), 1941.
Margherita fra I tre (also known as Margherita and Her Three Uncles), 1942.
Zaza, 1944.
La donna della montagna (also known as The Mountain Woman), 1944.
Aquila nera (also known as Return of the Black Eagle and The Black Eagle), 1946.
Film Unit Manager:
Le miserie del Signor Travet (also known as His Young Wife), 1945.
Film Presenter:
Anima nera (also known as Ame noire), 1962.
Lo sbarco di Anzio (also known as Anzio and The Battle of Anzio), 1968.
La spina dorsale del diavolo (also known as The Deserter, The Devil Backbone, and Djavolja kicma), Paramount, 1970.
The Stone Killer (also known as L'assassino di pietra), 1973.
Death Wish, 1974.
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (also known as Buffalo Bill and the Indians), 1976.
The Shootist, 1976.
King Kong, 1976.
The First Great Train Robbery (also known as The Great Train Robbery), 1979.
The Dead Zone, 1983.
Amityville 3-D (also known as Amityville III: The Demon and Amityville: The Demon), 1983.
Year of the Dragon, 1985.
Marie (also known as Marie: A True Story), 1985.
Once Upon a Crime (also known as 7 Gauner und ein dackel and Es war einmal ein mord), 1992.
Red Dragon (also known as Roter Drache), Universal, 2002.
The Last Legion (also known as Le derniere legion and L'ultima legione), Weinstein Company, 2007.
Film Appearances:
L'orologio a cucu (also known as The Cuckoo Clock), 1938.
Il fattorino del fioraio, Batticuore (also known as Heartbeat), 1939.
Un fattorino, I grandi magazzini (also known as Department Store), 1939.
Piccolo hotel (also known as Small Hotel), 1939.
Dino, Troppo tardi t'ho conosciuta (also known as I Met You Too Late), 1940.
Uno degli studenti con la penna, Boccaccio, 1940.
L'ultimo combattimento (also known as The Last Fight), 1941.
I tre volti (also known as The Three Faces and Three Faces of a Woman), Dino De Laurentiis, 1965.
Himself, Conan Unchained: The Making of "Conan" (documentary; also known as Conan Unchained: The Making of "Conan the Barbarian"), Universal Studios Home Video, 2000.
Himself, Breaking the Silence: The Making of "Hannibal" (documentary), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment, 2001.
Himself, A Director's Journey: The Making of "Red Dragon" (documentary short), Universal Home Video, 2003.
Himself, Federico Fellini—Mit den augen der anderen (documentary; also known as Federico Fellini—Through the Eyes of Others), Preview Release GmbH, 2003.
Television Producer; Miniseries:
L'Odissea (also known as The Adventures of Ulysses, Die Odyssee, Odissea, and Le avventure di Ullisse), 1969.
Noble House, NBC, 1987.
Television Executive Producer; Movies:
Dracula's Widow, HBO, 1988.
Stephen King's "Sometimes They Come Back" (also known as Sometimes They Come Back), CBS, 1991.
Slave of Dreams, Showtime, 1995.
Solomon and Sheba, Showtime, 1995.
Television Appearances; Specials:
Dino De Laurentiis: The Last Movie Mogul, 2001.
Inside "Red Dragon," 2002.
Mario Bava: Operazione paura, 2004.
Television Appearances; Episodic:
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, NBC, 1970.
"Sophia Loren: Actress Italian Style," Biography, Arts and Entertainment, 1997.
"Anthony Quinn: A Lust for Life," Biography, Arts and Entertainment, 1998.
OTHER SOURCES
Periodicals:
Business Week, March 13, 1989.
Forbes, March 7, 1988.
Los Angeles Times, January 23, 2001.
Variety, February 24, 1988; March 21, 1990; August 28, 2000, p. F22; May 26, 2003, p. 68; August 25, 2003, p. S16; December 6, 2004, p. S28.
de Laurentiis, Dino
DE LAURENTIIS, Dino
Producer. Nationality: Italian. Born: Torre Annunciata, 8 August 1919. Education: Attended Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Rome. Military Service: During World War II. Family: Married 1) the actress Silvana Mangano, 1949 (deceased), one son (deceased), three daughters; 2) the producer Martha Schumacher. Career: Worked as extra, actor, propman, unit manager, and assistant director while still in school; 1939—produced his first film, Troppo tardi t'ho conosciuta; early 1950s—co-founded Ponti-De Laurentiis production company with Carlo Ponti: dissolved, 1957; built Dinocittà studio in early 1960s: sold to Italian government, early 1970s; resettled in the United States with Embassy Pictures, and, in 1985, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (resigned as chairman of the board, 1988). Awards: Academy Award, for La strada, 1954, and Nights of Cabiria, 1956. Address: De Laurentiis Communications, 8670 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California 90211, U.S.A.
Films as Producer:
- 1939
Troppo tardi t'ho conosciuta (Caraccioli)
- 1941
L'amore canta (Poggioli)
- 1942
Margherita fra i tre (Perilli); Malombra (Soldati)
- 1943
La donna della montagne (Castellani)
- 1946
Il miserie del Signor Travet (Soldati); Il bandito (Lattuada)
- 1947
La figlia del capitano (Camerini); Il passatore (Coletta)
- 1948
Riso amaro (Bitter Rice) (de Santis); Molti sogni per le strade (Women Trouble) (Camerini)
- 1949
Il lupo della Sila (Lure of the Sila) (Coletti)
- 1950
Il brigante Mussolini (Camerini); Napoli milionaria (de Filippo); Adamo e Eva (Mattòli)
- 1951
Guardie e ladri (Cops and Robbers) (Steno and Monicelli); Botta e risposta (Soldati); Romanticismo (Fracassi); Sensualità (Fracassi); Totò a colori (Totò in Color) (Steno)
- 1952
Anna (Lattuada) (co); Europa '51 (Rossellini); I tre corsari (Soldati); La tratta delle bianche (Girls Marked Danger) (Comencini); Jolanda, la figlia del Corsaro Nero (Soldati)
- 1953
Anni facili (Easy Years) (Zampa); Dov'è la libertà? (Rossellini); La Lupa (The She-Wolf) (Lattuada)
- 1954
Ulisse (Ulysses) (Camerini); La strada (Fellini); La romana (Woman of Rome) (Zampa)
- 1955
Il coraggio (Paolella); Mambo (Rossen); L'oro di Napoli (Gold of Naples) (De Sica); La donna del fiume (Soldati); La bella mugnaia (The Miller's Beautiful Wife) (Camerini)
- 1956
Guendalina (Lattuada); La banda degli honesti (Mastrocinque); Totò, Peppino, e . . . la malafemmina (Mastrocinque); War and Peace (K. Vidor); La notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria; Cabiria) (Fellini)
- 1958
Barrage contre le Pacifique (La diga sul Pacifico; The Sea Wall; This Angry Age) (Clément); La tempesta (Tempest) (Lattuada); Fortunella (de Filippo)
- 1959
La grande guerra (The Great War) (Monicelli)
- 1960
Giovanna e le altre (Five Branded Women) (Ritt); Crimen (. . . and Suddenly It's Murder) (Camerini); Tutti a casa (Everybody Go Home!) (Comencini); Il gobbo (The Hunchback of Rome) (Lizzani)
- 1961
I due nemici (The Best of Enemies) (Hamilton); Il giudizia universale (The Last Judgment) (De Sica); Barabba (Barabbas) (Fleischer); Io amo, tu ami (I Love, You Love) (Blasetti)
- 1962
Mafioso (Lattuada)
- 1963
Il boom (De Sica); Il diavolo (To Bed or Not to Bed) (Polidoro)
- 1965
La Bibbia (The Bible . . . in the Beginning) (Huston)
- 1966
Se tutte le donne del mondo (Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die) (Levin and Maiuri)
- 1967
Lo straniero (The Stranger) (Visconti); Le streghe (The Witches) (Visconti and others)
- 1968
La sbarco di Anzio (Anzio; The Battle for Anzio) (Coletti and Dmytryk); Barbarella (Vadim); Diabolik (Danger: Diabolik) (Bava); Fraulein Doktor (Lattuada); Banditi a Milano (The Violent Four) (Lizzani); Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli)
- 1969
Una breve stagione (A Brief Season) (Castellani)
- 1970
Waterloo (Bondarchuk); La spina dorsale del diavolo (Kennedy)
- 1971
The Deserter (Kennedy)
- 1972
Joe Valachi—i segreti di Cosa Nostra (The Valachi Papers) (Kennedy)
- 1973
The Stone Killer (Winner); Serpico (Lumet)
- 1975
Mandingo (Fleischer)
- 1976
Casanova (Fellini); Drum (Carter); King Kong (Guillermin); Ansikte mot ansikte (Face to Face) (Bergman); Buffalo Bill and the Indians (Altman); The Shootist (Siegel)
- 1977
Das Schlangenei (The Serpent's Egg) (Bergman)
- 1979
Hurricane (Troell); Flash Gordon (Hodges)
- 1981
Ragtime (Forman); Conan the Barbarian (Milius)
- 1984
Conan the Destroyer (Fleischer); Firestarter (Lester)
- 1985
Year of the Dragon (Cimino); Red Sonja (Fleischer); Marie (Donaldson); Cat's Eye (Teague); Silver Bullet (Attias)
- 1990
Desperate Hours (Cimino)
- 1991
Sometimes They Come Back (McLoughlin—for TV)
- 1992
Once upon a Crime (Criminals; Over My Dead Body; Troublemakers; Returning Napoleon) (Levy)
- 1993
Body of Evidence (Edel)
- 1995
Solomon & Sheba (Young—for TV); Assassins (Donner) (exec); Slave of Dreams (Young—for TV)
- 1996
Unforgettable (Dahl)
- 1997
Breakdown (Mostow)
Films as Executive Producer:
- 1954
Un giorno in pretura (A Day in Court) (Steno) (co)
- 1961
Maciste contre il vampiro (Goliath and the Vampire) (Gentilomo and Corbucci)
- 1974
Death Wish (Winner)
- 1975
Three Days of the Condor (Pollack)
- 1977
La orca (Orca) (E. Visconti); The White Buffalo (Lee Thompson)
- 1978
The Brink's Job (Friedkin); King of the Gypsies (Pierson)
- 1983
The Dead Zone (Cronenberg)
- 1984
The Bounty (Donaldson)
- 1985
Dune (Lynch)
- 1986
Tai Pan (Duke); Crimes of the Heart (Beresford); Blue Velvet (Lynch); Maximum Overdrive (Stephen King)
Publications
By DE LAURENTIIS: articles—
Bianco e Nero (Rome), no. 7–8, 1961.
Interview (New York), January 1973.
Film Français (Paris), 11 June 1976.
American Film (Washington, D.C.), December/January 1977.
American Cinematographer (Hollywood), January 1977.
Ciné Revue (Paris), 6 January 1977.
Film Comment (New York), January/February 1977.
Ciné Revue (Paris), 15 May 1980.
Stills (London), June/July 1984.
On DE LAURENTIIS: articles—
Films and Filming (London), January 1957.
Film Français (Paris), 15 June 1984.
National Film Theatre Booklet (London), July 1984.
American Film (Washington, D.C.), November 1984.
Film Français (Paris), 28 December 1984.
Cinema Papers (Melbourne), March 1987.
Time, 11 January 1988.
Variety (New York), 24 February 1988.
Variety (New York), 3 February 1992.
Astronomy, November 1994.
Variety (New York), 10 May 1999.
* * *
One of the most colorful, prolific, and successful producers in the contemporary motion picture business, Dino De Laurentiis has proven his entrepreneurial skills time and again, growing from an independent Italian producer into an international conglomerate. His product, from low-budget neorealist works to multimillion dollar spectacles, has always stressed entertainment value, and no matter what the era, he has managed to overcome the exigencies of the fickle motion picture industry to produce consistently crowd-pleasing fare. In the 1950s and 1960s it was the epic; in the 1970s and 1980s a flow of Charles Bronson and Arnold Schwarzenegger action movies, and a series of Stephen King horror shows. De Laurentiis has been a popular media figure with his flamboyant personality and high profile; very much a mogul in the tradition of Samuel Goldwyn, he maintains a strong degree of production value with talented directors, actors, writers, and technicians. What other producer, for example, has produced films by Fellini, Bergman, Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Vidor, Huston, Lumet, Forman, Altman, Friedkin, Pollack, Cimino, and Cronenberg, to name but a few? Their films bear the De Laurentiis imprimatur; at the same time, he has shown his fondness for such impersonal, reliable directorial technicians as Richard Fleischer, John Guillermin, and Michael Winner on many of his bread-andbutter pictures.
De Laurentiis attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome at the age of 16, then gained practical filmmaking experience in the Italian film industry as an actor, prop man, assistant director, and unit manager. By the age of 20, he had produced his first major film, L'amore canta, then organized Realcine in Turin in order to arrange financing for his productions. World War II disrupted his progress, and Realcine was destroyed during the war. De Laurentiis was at the heart of the postwar neorealism movement in Italy, helping to revitalize the Italian cinema. He scored his first international success with Giuseppe de Santis's Bitter Rice, a stark drama of the women who work the rice fields of the Po Valley, starring Silvana Mangano (whom De Laurentiis married shortly thereafter). The producer solidified his status when he formed the Ponti-De Laurentiis Production Company with Carlo Ponti in the early 1950s.
Together, De Laurentiis and Ponti produced films by Roberto Rossellini (Europa '51), Vittorio De Sica (Gold of Naples), and Federico Fellini (La strada). Europa '51, starring Rossellini's wife Ingrid Bergman, was a bleak disappointment, typical of the Rossellini-Bergman films, but it did give the producers the prestige of a former Hollywood star. They had much better fortune with De Sica and Fellini—Gold of Naples is an exceptional anthology of four vignettes dealing with Neapolitan life, while La strada has become a classic of world cinema, a beautiful and affecting drama of a loutish circus performer and the young woman he abuses, brilliantly directed by Fellini and acted by Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Massina. La strada won De Laurentiis and Ponti an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and worldwide recognition as the preeminent producers in Italy.
De Laurentiis realized the box-office appeal of epics during the 1950s, when small-screen television began stealing motion picture audiences. Another advantage was attracting big-name stars to increase the size of their potential audience, and with this in mind Ponti and De Laurentiis produced two gargantuan spectacles, Mario Camerini's Ulysses, starring Kirk Douglas and Silvana Mangano, and King Vidor's War and Peace with Henry Fonda and Audrey Hepburn. Ulysses, indirectly based on Homer's saga of ancient Greece, sold on the strength of Douglas's marquee value; it is a tedious, talky picture. War and Peace was more successful, with the Tolstoy novel condensed into two hours and 30 minutes, marked by vivid imagery of the Napoleonic Wars, and King Vidor's eye for character and landscape.
De Laurentiis and Ponti went their separate ways after these films, and De Laurentiis created a new independent production company. Nights of Cabiria, a Fellini film about a wistful prostitute (played by Massina), won De Laurentiis another Best Foreign Film Oscar, and later served as the basis for the Broadway musical and film Sweet Charity. Although he still produced Italian movies such as Cabiria and Mario Monicelli's The Great War, a comedy-drama set during World War I, De Laurentiis continued with a policy of U.S.-Italo co-productions, frequently releasing in America through Paramount, filming in Italy with English-speaking stars and directors. In the early 1960s, he constructed a vast studio complex outside Rome and used it as a base of operations for production, as well as leasing it to other independents. In addition to such steamy dramas as Martin Ritt's Five Branded Women and René Clément's This Angry Age, De Laurentiis made money from epics such as Richard Fleischer's Barabbas and particularly from The Bible . . . in the Beginning, directed by John Huston with an all-star cast reverently recreating the great tales of the Old Testament. De Laurentiis had another prestigious blockbuster with Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. For once the Shakespeare tragedy was correctly cast with teenagers in the leads, and the picture struck a chord with the rebellious young generation of the late 1960s.
De Laurentiis moved to America in the early 1970s, after Italy imposed tight tax restrictions on the film industry. Since then his career has expanded rapidly. He continued to support individualistic filmmakers such as Fellini (Casanova) and Ingmar Bergman (Face to Face, The Serpent's Egg), and experienced noble failures with Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill and the Indians and William Friedkin's The Brink's Job, but began to rely more and more on sure-fire mass appeal material. A series of Charles Bronson action films—The Valachi Papers, The Stone Killer, and Death Wish—were huge moneymakers, and employed a graphic, streetwise realism. Although De Laurentiis still made important films such as Sidney Lumet's Serpico. (the true story of New York police corruption), Sydney Pollack's CIA thriller Three Days of the Condor, Don Siegel's The Shootist, (a nostalgic Western and John Wayne's last movie), and Milos Forman's impressive turn-of-the-century epic Ragtime, he found it profitable to exploit more popular genres.
For a time in the 1970s, it seemed as though the producer was dedicated to such overwrought kitsch as Mandingo, Orca, and Hurricane. Of these only Mandingo was a resounding box-office hit, spawning a sequel, Drum. While he had enjoyed a science-fiction success with Roger Vadim's sexy Barbarella, De Laurentiis's other sci-fi films, Flash Gordon and David Lynch's $50 million Dune did not perform well. Much stronger were the Conan films; Robert E. Howard's classic sword and sorcery adventures were faithfully transmitted to the screen with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role. John Milius directed Conan the Barbarian; Richard Fleischer handled the inferior sequel Conan the Destroyer, as well as a related adventure, Red Sonja. After a well-mounted remake of The Bounty with Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian and Anthony Hopkins as Captain Bligh under Roger Donaldson's direction, De Laurentiis opened new studios in Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1985 he acquired Embassy Pictures and formed De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, a new distribution and production company, making many of its films at the North Carolina studios. Again, there was a familiar pattern to the De Laurentiis product, with prestigious films (Crimes of the Heart), epics (Tai-Pan), action movies (Desperate Hours), and occasionally the offbeat (Blue Velvet). Horror pictures have been the mainstay of De Laurentiis's output in recent years, especially the successful Stephen King movies—The Dead Zone, Firestarter, Cat's Eye, Silver Bullet, and Maximum Overdrive. De Laurentiis has seemingly beat the system by surviving as an independent producer for 50 years, capping his career with a thriving distribution company. It is no surprise. For 50 years, De Laurentiis has been making movies, not just deals, and his prodigious body of work is rare indeed in today's film industry. Few producers possess his sense of daring—he was the only producer to hire Michael Cimino, for example, after the Heaven's Gate debacle, and their film, Year of the Dragon, helped Cimino back on his feet—or his sense of showmanship, whether promoting the sublime or the banal.
—John A. Gallagher