Dino De Laurentiis

Agostino De Laurentiis, usually credited as Dino De Laurentiis (8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010), was an Italian Academy Award-winning movie producer.

 Early life 
Agostino De Laurentiis was born in Torre Annunziata, Kingdom of Italy, on 8 August 1919. He grew up selling spaghetti made by his father's pasta factory. His older brother, Luigi De Laurentiis (1917–1992), later followed him into film production. He studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in 1937 and 1938, but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.

 Career 
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).

 Awards 
In 2001 he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

 Death 
Laurentiis died on 10 November 2010 at his residence in Beverly Hills, California.CNN: Movie Producer Dino de Laurentiis dies , Nov. 11, 2010

 Personal life 
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.

 Filmography 
Selected filmography from 1965 to the present.
 Year  Title  Director1965 Battle of the Bulge Ken Annakin1968 Danger: Diabolik  Mario BavaBarbarella  Roger Vadim1973 Serpico  Sidney Lumet1974 Death Wish Michael Winner1976 King Kong  John Guillermin1980  Flash Gordon  Mike Hodges1981  Halloween II  Rick Rosenthal Ragtime  Miloš Forman1982  Fighting Back Lewis Teague Conan the Barbarian  John Milius Amityville II: The Possession Damiano Damiani1983  Amityville 3-D  Richard Fleischer Halloween III: Season of the Witch  Tommy Lee Wallace Dead Zone David Cronenberg1984  Yado  Richard Fleischer Conan the Destroyer  Richard Fleischer Firestarter  Mark L. Lester Dune  David Lynch The Bounty  Roger Donaldson1985  Maximum Overdrive Stephen King Raw Deal  John Irvin Marie Roger Donaldson Silver Bullet  Daniel Attias Cat's Eye  Lewis Teague Year of the Dragon  Michael Cimino Red Sonja  Richard Fleischer1986  Crimes of the Heart  Bruce Beresford Blue Velvet  David Lynch Tai-Pan  Daryl Duke Manhunter  Michael Mann King Kong Lives  John Guillermin1987  Hiding Out  Bob Giraldi Evil Dead 2  Sam Raimi The Bedroom Window Curtis Hanson1989  Collision Course Lewis Teague From the Hip  Bob Clark1990  Sometimes They Come Back  Tom McLoughlin Desperate Hours  Michael Cimino1992  Once Upon a Crime  Eugene Levy Kuffs   Bruce A. Evans1993  Body of Evidence  Uli Edel Army of Darkness  Sam Raimi1994  Temptation Strathford Hamilton1995  Solomon & Sheba  Robert Young Slave of Dreams  Robert Young Rumpelstiltskin  Mark Jones (I) Assassins Richard Donner1996  Unforgettable  John Dahl Bound  Larry and Andy Wachowski1997  Breakdown  Jonathan Mostow2000  U-571  Jonathan Mostow2001  Hannibal  Ridley Scott2002  Red Dragon  Brett Ratner2006  Hannibal Rising  Peter Webber The Last Legion  Doug Lefler2007  Virgin Territory  David Leland

References

Other websites

Dino De Laurentiis Company  Official site

Category:Academy Award winning producers
Category:Italian movie actors
Category:Italian movie producers
Category:People from Campania
Category:1919 births
Category:2010 deaths