Dino De Laurentiis

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

Film production

De Laurentiis produced his first film, L'ultimo Combattimento, in 1941. His company, the Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, moved into film production in 1946. In the early years, De Laurentiis produced Italian neorealist films such as Bitter Rice (1949) and the early Fellini works La Strada (1954) and Nights of Cabiria (1956), often in collaboration with producer Carlo Ponti.

In the 1960s, De Laurentiis built his own studio facilities. He produced such films as Barabbas (1961), a Christian religious epic; The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966); Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1966), a spoof of the James Bond films; Navajo Joe (1966), a spaghetti Western; Anzio (1968), a World War II film; Barbarella (1968) and Danger: Diabolik (1968), both successful comic book adaptations; and The Valachi Papers (1972), released before its originally scheduled date in order to capitalize on the popularity of The Godfather.

In 1973, De Laurentiis relocated his headquarters to New York and he was reportedly considering to produce an American television series. His studio financially collapsed during the 1970s. In the 1980s, he had his own studio: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) based in Wilmington, North Carolina. The studio made Wilmington an unexpected center of film and television production. In 1990, he obtained backing from an Italian friend and formed another company: Dino De Laurentiis Communications in Beverly Hills.

De Laurentiis produced a number of successful films, including The Scientific Cardplayer (1972), Serpico (1973), Death Wish (1974), Mandingo (1975), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Shootist (1976), Drum (1976), Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg (1977), Ragtime (1981), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Blue Velvet (1986) and Breakdown (1997). De Laurentiis' name became well known through the 1976 King Kong remake, which was a commercial hit; Lipstick (1976), a rape and revenge drama; Orca (1977), a killer whale film; The White Buffalo (1977), a western; the disaster movie Hurricane (1979); the remake of Flash Gordon (1980); David Lynch's Dune (1984); The Bounty (1984); and King Kong Lives (1986).

De Laurentiis produced several adaptations of Stephen King works, including The Dead Zone (1983), Cat's Eye (1985), Silver Bullet (1985), and Maximum Overdrive (1986). De Laurentiis' company was involved with the horror sequels Halloween II (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), and Army of Darkness (1992). De Laurentiis also produced the first Hannibal Lecter film, Manhunter (1986), an adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon. He passed on adapting the novels' sequel, The Silence of the Lambs (1991), but produced the two follow-ups, Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002), a re-adaptation of the novel. He also produced the prequel Hannibal Rising (2007), which tells the story of how Hannibal becomes a serial killer.

DDL Foodshow

DDL Foodshow was an Italian specialty foods store with three locations: two in New York City and one in Beverly Hills. They were opened in the mid-1980s, and were owned and operated by De Laurentiis.

The first store was opened in the restored palm court in the ornate lobby of the historic Endicott Hotel, now a co-op on Manhattan's Upper West Side, near the existing Zabar's food emporium on Broadway. The first NYC store opened in November 1982, and it was reported that the store "opened to crowds of 30,000 over the Thanksgiving weekend, when de Laurentiis himself greeted customers at the door". The store's assistant manager said that "it was like the premiere of a movie".

The food critic Gael Greene wrote a scathing review on the opening in New York. A review in The San Francisco Examiner said that it was "worth a peek and a purchase".

The stores closed less than two years after opening, due in part to the poor reviews and lower sales than expected. When the stores first opened, de Laurentiis had estimated that the Upper West Side location would need to take in $75,000 to $80,000 a week to break even; after the closing, he stated that the store had never turned a profit. Restauranteur Hans W. Pauli, who took over the space, renamed it and cut the staff from 100 to 30; he stated that it would have actually taken "closer to $200,000 a week" to break even.

Personal life

De Laurentiis' brief first marriage in Italy was annulled.

In 1949, De Laurentiis married Italian-British actress Silvana Mangano, with whom he had four children: Veronica, an author and actress; Raffaella, a fellow film producer; Federico, also a film producer who died in a plane crash in 1981; and Francesca. His granddaughter through Veronica is chef Giada De Laurentiis, while his nephew through his brother Luigi is fellow film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis. He and Mangano divorced in 1988, and she died of lung cancer the following year.

Having lived in the U.S. since 1976, De Laurentiis became an American citizen in 1986.

In 1990, De Laurentiis married American producer Martha Schumacher, who had produced many of his films since 1985. They had two daughters named Carolyna and Dina and remained married until his death in 2010. Schumacher died of cancer in 2021.

Death

On 10 November 2010, at the age of 91, De Laurentiis died at his home in Beverly Hills, California.

Awards and recognitions

In 1957, De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for producing La Strada (1954). This was a unique occasion when the producers' names were included in the nominations, and they, not the director Federico Fellini, received the award.

In 2001, De Laurentiis received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 2012, he was posthumously honored with the America Award by the Italy–USA Foundation.

Filmography

Producer

Uncredited

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Executive producer

Uncredited

References

References

1. . (11 November 2010). ["Dino De Laurentiis"](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/film-obituaries/8127250/Dino-De-Laurentiis.html).
2. Brady, James. (December 24, 1973). "Dino De Laurentiis: Movie Mogul Italian Style Moves to New York". New York Magazine.
3. (9 July 1984). "Laurentiis has others looking our way". [[Wilmington Morning Star]].
4. Kalogerakis, George. (February 2002). "Let's Do Lunch". Foodandwine.com.
5. [[Gael Greene
6. (7 March 1983). "Food's the Star In New De Laurentiis Show". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
7. (16 January 1983). "Are discriminating New Yorkers going to buy this deli with a difference?". [[Chicago Tribune]].
8. (4 September 1983). "DDL isn't your run-of-the-meal delicatessen". [[San Francisco Examiner]].
9. Sifton, Sam, [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/dining/reviews/20Eataly.html "Eataly Offers Italy by the Ounce"], ''The New York Times'', 19 October 2010
10. (14 April 1984). "NEW MANAGEMENT AT DDL FOODSHOW". New York Times.
11. Arnold, Laurence. (11 November 2010). "Dino De Laurentiis, Producer of Film Spectacles, Dies at 91". [[Business Week]].
12. (11 November 2010). "Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis dies". [[The Globe and Mail]].
13. Lane, John Francis. (11 November 2010). "Obituary: Dino De Laurentiis". [[The Guardian]].
14. Delugach, Al. (20 February 1988). "De Laurentiis Resigns From Film Group". Los Angeles Times.
15. (11 November 2010). "Filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis Dies at Age 91". [[USA Today]].
16. (11 November 2010). "Movie Producer Dino de Laurentiis dies". [[CNN]].
17. Mondello, Bob. (11 November 2010). "Dino De Laurentiis: For Decades, A Big-Picture Guy". [[NPR]].
18. (13 November 2010). "Funeral services for De Laurentiis will be held Monday". [[Los Angeles Times]].
19. (17 July 2014). "Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award".