Dino De Laurentiis

Dino De Laurentiis Headshot

Producer

Birth Name: Agostino De Laurentiis

Birth Date: August 8, 1919

Death Date: November 10, 2010

Birth Place: Torre Annunziata, Campania, Italy

Grandchildren: Giada De Laurentiis

A Hollywood player for decades, producer Dino De Laurentiis produced a remarkable mix of motion pictures, ranging from art house fare like Fellini's "La Strada" (1954) to camp classics like "Barbarella" (1968) to spectacles like "King Kong" (1976) and "Tai Pan" (1986), as well as popular entertainment like "Hannibal" (2001). Ever since he began his producing career with the international hit "Riso Amaro" ("Bitter Rice") (1948), De Laurentiis financed, produced or distributed hundreds of movies, including some of the most significant ever made in cinema history, like "Serpico" (1973), "Death Wish" (1974) and "Conan the Barbarian" (1982).

Toward the end of the 20th century, De Laurentiis - who had missed out on the massive success of "Silence of the Lambs (1991) after declining the rights following the failure of "Manhunter" (1986) - saw a resurgence with the box office hit "Hannibal" (2001), which spawned another successful sequel, "Red Dragon" (2002), and cemented his place as one of cinema's most prolific producers.

Born on Aug. 8, 1918 in Torre Annunciata, Italy, a small city in the province of Naples, De Laurentiis was raised by his father, Rosario, a pasta maker, and his mother, Giusppina. Though he entered his father's pasta business while still a teenager, De Laurentiis found the idea of selling spaghetti unappealing and instead moved to Rome, where he enrolled in the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. De Laurentiis supported himself with acting roles and behind the scenes work until he decided to become a producer in 1939, making his producing debut with "Troppo tardi t'ho conosciuta."

But it took another nine years before he enjoyed a real international success with the neo-realistic "Riso Amaro" ("Bitter Rice") (1948), one of the landmark films in the Italian neorealist movement that emerged after World War II. The film starred a buxom Silvana Mangano, whom De Laurentiis married in July 1949, as a rice field worker wooed by two men; one respectable (Raf Vallone) and the other a fugitive (Vittorio Gassman). The couple collaborated in several more ensuing films, including "Il Lupo della Sila" ("The Lure of Sila") (1949), "Il Brigante Musolino" ("Outlaw Girl") (1950) and "Anna" (1951).

In the 1950s, De Laurentiis joined with Sophia Loren's husband Carlo Ponti to form a production company that oversaw several prestigious Italian films, including Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning melodrama set in the seedy world of a travelling carnival, "La Strada" (1954). They went on to make "Attila" (1955), "The Miller's Wife" (1955) and "Guendalina" (1957) before dissolving their partnership.

By that time, De Laurentiis had branched out on his own, overseeing the epic "War and Peace" (1956), directed by King Vidor and starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda, while reuniting with Fellini on the Oscar-winning "The Nights of Cabiria" (1957). In 1959, De Laurentiis oversaw his third Academy Award-nominated foreign language motion picture, "The Great War."

Meanwhile, as the 1960s unfolded, De Laurentiis built his own studio, Dino Citta, and began teaming with some of the European cinema's finest filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica on "The Last Judgment" (1962), Jean-Luc Godard on "Pierre le fou" (1965) and Claude Chabrol on "An Orchid for the Tiger" (1965). He also worked the Hollywood scene with films like the religious-themed dramas "Barrabas" (1962) and the John Huston-directed "The Bible" (1966). This combination of art house and commercial fare reached absurd heights in 1968 with the odd combination of Francois Truffaut's "The Bride Wore Black" and Roger Vadim's "Barbarella".

When Dino Citta failed, De Laurentiis relocated to the United States in the early 1970s and initiated a run of films that proved popular at the box office. He was producer of "The Valachi Papers" (1972), which was based on fact and purported to tell the real story of the Italian Mafia that a film like "The Godfather" was unable to do. Meanwhile, "Serpico" (1973) garnered praise for its true-life tale of police corruption as well as for Al Pacino's magnificent portrayal as an idealistic young cop in jeopardy for not taking bribes. He followed with "Death Wish" (1974), which perhaps tapped most into the zeitgeist, serving up a revenge tale that spawned several sequels starring Charles Bronson and countless imitations.

While the spy thriller "Three Days of the Condor" (1975) combined the elements of pulp entertainment with highbrow aspirations embodied in star Robert Redford and director Sydney Pollack, De Laurentiis waded in the muck with lowbrow entertainment like the dreadful "Mandingo" (1975) and the more noisome sequel "Drum" (1976).

Perhaps the producer's greatest act of hubris was undertaking the remake of the 1933 classic "King Kong" (1976), which he hoped would rival "Jaws" (1975) in terms of box office take. Famously declaring that "When Jaws dies, nobody cries. When Kong dies, they all cry," De Laurentiis instead delivered a campy, low-brow effort full off cheesy dialogue and over-the-top performances from Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin. Not losing his flair for the high-brow, De Laurentiis reteamed with Fellini one last time for "Fellini's Casanova" (1976), the director's ill-fated biopic of the great lover (Donald Sutherland).

After producing Ingmar Bergman's venture into English-language filmmaking, "The Serpent's Egg" (1978), he produced "The Great Train Robbery" (1979) and "Flash Gordon" (1980) while delivering an intriguing adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's historical novel, "Ragtime" (1981), directed by Milos Forman. Meanwhile, he helped introduce the world to Arnold Schwarzenegger by producing "Conan the Barbarian" (1982), which later spawned a sequel "Conant the Destroyer" (1984) and an off-shoot, "Red Sonja" (1985).

Amid much fanfare in 1983, De Laurentiis announced the formation of the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG), which included a state-of-the-art film studio in Wilmington, NC. Serving as chairman and CEO, he oversaw an ambitious slate of films, most of which proved to be box office disappointments. Despite the presence of stars Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson, "The Bounty" (1984), a retelling of the famous mutiny, failed to find an audience.

Most disappointing of all was "Dune" (1984), director David Lynch's wildly ambitious and overly muddled distillation of Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel, which proved to be both an expensive failure and a frustrating mess for audiences. After the failures of projects like "Year of the Dragon" (1985) and "Tai Pan" (1986), De Laurentiis ceded defeat and resigned from DEG in 1988, while the following year, he lost his wife, Silvana Mangano, to lung cancer.

Perhaps a lesser figure would have been driven from the industry, but the formidable De Laurentiis formed Dino De Laurentiis Communications and produced the remake of "The Desperate Hours" (1990). Following his first foray into American television, "Stephen King's 'Sometimes They Come Back'" (CBS, 1991), he returned to features as the executive producer of "Kuffs" (1992) while signing Madonna to star in "Body of Evidence" (1993), a "Basic Instinct"-inspired knockoff.

Returning to the small screen, De Laurentiis returned to the biblically-inspired films of the 1960s and oversaw a remake of "Solomon and Sheba" (Showtime, 1995) which starred Jimmy Smits as the biblical ruler of Israel and Halle Berry as the Queen of Sheba. Also that year, he steered the television movie depicting the biblical Joseph (Adrian Pasdar) and his rise out of slavery to become the chief minister to the Pharaoh of Egypt (Orso Maria Guerrini) in the oddly-titled "Slave of Dreams" (Showtime, 1995). Although the Ray Liotta thriller "Unforgettable" (1996) was anything but, De Laurentiis enjoyed a critical hit with "Breakdown" (1997), a taut thriller starring Kurt Russell as a husband looking for his wife's kidnapper after a breakdown in the middle of Nowhere, New Mexico. As the years piled on, De Laurentiis slowed down his output, though he did remain active while receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2001.

Following the underwhelming World War II yarn "U-571" (2000), De Laurentiis brought "Hannibal" (2001) - the long-awaited sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991) - to the screen. Previously, his company held the rights to Thomas Harris' novels and was behind the Michael Mann-helmed "Manhunter" (1986). But the financial wreckage left behind from that box office failure forced the company to pass on "Lambs," only to see Orion Pictures make a huge hit that won multiple Oscars. Determined to not let such an opportunity pass him by again, De Laurentiis at long last managed to convince Anthony Hopkins to reprise Dr. Hannibal Lecter despite "Lambs" star Jodie Foster and director Jonathan Demme declining to participate. With Julianne Moore as Clarice Starling and Ridley Scott in the director's chair, De Laurentiis finally brought the picture to screen. Though a huge box office hit - the film earned $58 million its opening weekend - "Hannibal" received mix reviews at best and zero Oscar nominations. De Laurentiis went back to the well with "Red Dragon" (2002), a remake of "Manhunter" starring Hopkins and Edward Norton.

Several years later, he produced "Hannibal Rising" (2007), a prequel that saw the rise of Hannibal Lecter (Gaspard Ulliel) as a notorious serial killer. The film was savaged by critics on its way to becoming a box office dud. Although his final project was not a major success, De Laurentiis left behind a sweeping legacy of producing quality films, as well as sharing his unrequited love of the art form itself with the rest of the world. De Laurentiis passed away on Nov. 10, 2010 in his Beverly Hills home, surrounded by loved ones. He was 91 years old.

Credits

Una domenica a Capri

Producer
Show
2016

Vittorio racconta Gassman: Una vita da mattatore

Actor
Movie
2010

The Last LegionStream

Producer
Movie
2007
15%

Hannibal RisingStream

Producer
Movie
2007
16%

Virgin Territory

Producer
Movie
2007

Red Dragon

Producer
Movie
2002

HannibalStream

Executive Producer
Movie
2001
39%

HannibalStream

Producer
Movie
2001
39%

U-571Stream

Producer
Movie
2000
68%

BreakdownStream

Producer
Movie
1997
83%

The Truce

Producer
Movie
1997

UnforgettableStream

Producer
Movie
1996
21%

Solomon and Sheba

Producer
Movie
1995

Assassins

Executive Producer
Movie
1995

Slave of Dreams

Producer
Movie
1995

Once Upon a CrimeStream

Producer
Movie
1992
0%

Army of DarknessStream

Executive Producer
Movie
1992
68%

Body of EvidenceStream

Producer
Movie
1992
8%

Desperate HoursStream

Producer
Movie
1990
29%

Maximum OverdriveStream

Executive Producer
Movie
1986
15%

Tai-Pan

Executive Producer
Movie
1986

Manhunter

Producer
Movie
1986

Year of the DragonStream

Producer
Movie
1985
58%

Silver BulletStream

Producer
Movie
1985
41%

Cat's Eye

Producer
Movie
1985

The BountyStream

Executive Producer
Movie
1984
74%

Conan the DestroyerStream

Executive Producer
Movie
1984
26%

DuneStream

Executive Producer
Movie
1984
44%

Conan the BarbarianStream

Executive Producer
Movie
1982
67%

Fighting Back

Executive Producer
Movie
1982

RagtimeStream

Producer
Movie
1981
83%

Flash GordonStream

Producer
Movie
1980
83%

Hurricane

Producer
Movie
1979

The Serpent's Egg

Producer
Movie
1978

LipstickStream

Producer
Movie
1976
18%

King KongStream

Producer
Movie
1976
53%

Crazy Joe

Producer
Movie
1974

Three Tough Guys

Producer
Movie
1974

SerpicoStream

Executive Producer
Movie
1973
93%

The Scientific Cardplayer

Producer
Movie
1972

Il prode Anselmo e il suo scudiero

Producer
Movie
1972

The Most Wonderful Evening of My Life

Producer
Movie
1972

The Valachi PapersStream

Producer
Movie
1972

A Man Called SledgeStream

Producer
Movie
1971

The Deserter

Producer
Movie
1971

Waterloo

Producer
Movie
1970

Nerosubianco

Producer
Movie
1969

Danger: Diabolik

Producer
Movie
1968

BarbarellaStream

Producer
Movie
1968
74%

Anzio

Producer
Movie
1968

The Witches

Producer
Movie
1967

The BibleStream

Producer
Movie
1966

Battle of the BulgeStream

Executive Producer
Movie
1965
63%

Three Faces of a Woman

Producer
Movie
1965

La mia signora

Producer
Movie
1964

The Boom

Producer
Movie
1963

Barabbas

Producer
Movie
1962

The Best of Enemies

Producer
Movie
1962

The Last Judgment

Producer
Movie
1961

Black City

Producer
Movie
1961

Everybody Go Home

Writer
Movie
1960

Under Ten Flags

Producer
Movie
1960

Five Branded Women

Producer
Movie
1960

The Great War

Producer
Movie
1959

Tempest

Producer
Movie
1958

This Angry Age

Producer
Movie
1958

Nights of Cabiria

Producer
Movie
1957

War and PeaceStream

Producer
Movie
1956
50%

Woman of Rome

Producer
Movie
1956

Ulysses

Producer
Movie
1955

Un americano a Roma

Producer
Movie
1954

Dov'è la libertà...?

Producer
Movie
1954

La StradaStream

Producer
Movie
1954
97%

The Gold of Naples

Producer
Movie
1954

Poverty and Nobility

Producer
Movie
1954

Totò a colori

Producer
Movie
1953

The Unfaithfuls

Producer
Movie
1953

Le Infedeli

Producer
Movie
1953

Anna

Producer
Movie
1952

Girls Marked Danger

Producer
Movie
1952

Bitter Rice

Producer
Movie
1949

Partenza ore sette

Producer
Movie
1946

The Bandit

Producer
Movie
1946