He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples. He grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father. He studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War.
His first movie was "L'ultimo Combattimento" in 1940. He has produced nearly 150 movies. In 1946 his company, the Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, moved into movie production. In the early years, De Laurentiis produced neorealist films such as "Bitter Rice" (1946) and the Fellini classics "La Strada" (1954) and "Nights of Cabiria" (1956). Neorealist is a style about the poor and working class. In the 1960s, De Laurentiis built his own studio facilities. During this period, De Laurentiis produced such films as "Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die", "Navajo Joe" (1966), and "Barbarella" (1968).
In the 1970s, De Laurentiis moved to the US. He created his own studio, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG), based in Wilmington, North Carolina. During this period De Laurentiis made a number of successful and acclaimed movies, including "Serpico" (1973), "Death Wish" (1974), "Mandingo" (1975), "Three Days of the Condor" (1975), "The Shootist" (1976), Ingmar Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" (1977), "Ragtime" (1981), "Conan the Barbarian" (1982) and "Blue Velvet" (1986).
It is for his more infamous productions that De Laurentiis's name has become known: The "King Kong" (1976) remake, which was a commercial hit, "Lipstick", the killer whale movie "Orca" (1977); "The White Buffalo" (1977); the disaster movie "Hurricane" (1979); the remake of "Flash Gordon" (1980); "Halloween II" (the 1981 sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 classic horror movie); David Lynch's "Dune" (1984); and "King Kong Lives" (1986). De Laurentiis also made several adaptations of Stephen King's works during this time, including "The Dead Zone" (1983), "Cat's Eye" (1985), "Silver Bullet" (1985) and "Maximum Overdrive" (1986); "Army of Darkness" (1992) was produced jointly by De Laurentiis, Robert Tapert and the movie's star Bruce Campbell.
De Laurentiis also produced the first Hannibal Lecter movie "Manhunter" (1986), "Hannibal" (2001) and "Red Dragon" (2002), a remake of "Manhunter". He also produced "Hannibal Rising" (2007).
In 2001 he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Laurentiis died on 10 November 2010 at his residence in Beverly Hills, California.
He had four children with his first wife, actress Silvana Mangano, who died in 1989. He later married movie producer Martha Schumacher with whom he had two daughters. One of the children from his first marriage, Raffaella De Laurentiis, is also a producer; another, Federico De Laurentiis (28 February 1955 – 15 July 1981), died at 26 in an airplane crash. His granddaughter is Giada De Laurentiis, host of "Everyday Italian", "Behind the Bash", "Giada at Home" and "Giada's Weekend Getaways" on Food Network. His nephew is Aurelio De Laurentiis, a film producer and the chairman of SSC Napoli football club.
Selected filmography from 1965 to the present.
Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany
Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany (9 August 1663 – 31 October 1713) was the son of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Marguerite Louise d'Orléans. Ferdinando was heir to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with the title Grand Prince from his father's accession in 1670 until his death in 1713. He married Violante Beatrice of Bavaria in 1689 but the marriage remained childless. He died of syphilis aged 50.
His older brother Gian Gastone de' Medici, then became Grand Prince and later was the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Supernatural (TV series)
Supernatural is an American horror, drama, fantasy, fiction TV series created by Eric Kripke. It first aired on September 13, 2005 on The WB and now it is part of The CW series. The show stars Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester. The show follows the two brothers (Sam and Dean) as they hunt demons and other figures of the paranormal, but not Bigfoot and aliens. The series is produced by the Warner Bros. Company with the help of Wonderland Sound and Vision. The current executive producers are Eric Kripke and McG, who also directs, and Robert Singer. The fourth producer, Kim Manners died of cancer in the production of the fourth season.
Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was the penultimate Grand Duke of Tuscany. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinando II of Tuscany. Cosimo's fifty long reign, the longest in Tuscan history, was marked by a series of regulatory laws. His reign also saw Tuscany's bad finances become even worse. He was succeeded by his elder surviving son, Gian Gastone de' Medici, when he died, in 1723.
He married Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, a cousin of Louis XIV. It was a bad marriage and Marguerite Louise eventually left Tuscany to remain at the Convent of Montmartre in Paris. Together, they had 3 children. In later life, he tried to have Anna Maria Luisa recognised as heiress of Tuscany, but Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, would not allow it. Tuscany passed it to the House of Lorraine in 1737.
Cosimo III had three children with Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, a granddaughter of Henry IV of France:
Cosimo III's official style was "Cosimo the Third, By the Grace of God, Grand Duke of Tuscany."
Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Gian Gastone de' Medici (24 May 1671 – 9 July 1737) was the last Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was the second son of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Marguerite Louise d'Orléans. His sister, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, the Electress Palatine, married him to Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg in 1697. The two remained childless and it was common knowledge that Gian Gastone was homosexual. Gian Gastone succeeded his father as Grand Duke in 1723.
In his reign he reversed all his father's laws and stopped taxes for poorer people, repealed (got rid of) the anti-Jewish laws and stopped public executions. His father, Cosimo III, wanted the his sister to succeed him but Spain, Great Britain, Austria and the Dutch Republic disregarded and made Charles III of Spain his heir. Charles changed his claim to Francis III of Lorraine. Francis then became the Grand Duke on 9 July 1737 ending almost 300 years of Medici rule over Florence.
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans (28 July 1645 – 17 September 1721) was Grand Duchess of Tuscany, as the wife of Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici. Deprived of her lover, Charles V of Lorraine, Marguerite Louise despised her husband and his family, whom she often quarrelled with and falsely suspected of attempting to poison her. Marguerite Louise reconciled with the Medici on more than one occasion, however, only to promptly resume hostilities.
Having become Grand Duke of Tuscany upon his father's death, in 1670, Cosimo III, under the sway of his mother, Vittoria della Rovere, refused to grant Marguerite Louise entry to the Privy Council. Thus without political influence, Marguerite Louise sorted the education of her eldest son, Grand Prince Ferdinando. Two more children followed: Anna Maria Luisa, Electress Palatine, and Gian Gastone, the last Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany.
In June 1675, Marguerite Louise was allowed to return to France to live in a convent in Paris. She was a daughter of Gaston de France, Duke of Orléans. Although the contract, banned her from leaving the convent, Marguerite Louise often went to her cousin Louis XIV's court at Versailles. She was at the centre of many scandals at the convent, including an attempt to burn it down, which greatly irritated her husband, who, despite the separation, took great interest in Marguerite Louise's life. While still technically married, Marguerite Louise had several affairs.
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici