1.
Dino De Laurentiis
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Agostino Dino De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer. Along with Carlo Ponti, he was one of the producers who brought Italian cinema to the scene at the end of World War II. He produced or co-produced more than 500 films, of which 38 were nominated for Academy Awards and he also had a brief acting career in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples and he started his studies at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome in the years 1937–1938 then interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Following his first movie, Lultimo Combattimento, Laurentiis produced nearly 150 films during the seven decades. In 1946 his company, the Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, moved into production, in the early years, De Laurentiis produced Italian neorealist films such as Bitter Rice and the Fellini classics La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, often in collaboration with producer Carlo Ponti. In the 1960s, Laurentiis built his own studio facilities, although these financially collapsed during the 1970s, De Laurentiis relocated to the US in 1976, and became an American citizen in 1986. In the 1980s he had his own studio, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, based in Wilmington, the building of the studio made Wilmington a center of film and television production. De Laurentiis also made several adaptations of Stephen Kings works, including The Dead Zone, Cats Eye, Silver Bullet, De Laurentiiss company was involved with the horror sequels Halloween II, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. De Laurentiis also produced the first Hannibal Lecter film, Manhunter and he passed on adapting the novels sequel, The Silence of the Lambs, but produced the two follow-ups, Hannibal and Red Dragon, a re-adaptation of the novel. He also produced the prequel Hannibal Rising, which tells the story of how Hannibal becomes a serial killer, in the 1980s, de Laurentiis owned and operated DDL Foodshow, a specialty retailer with two gourmet Italian markets in New York City and Los Angeles. His brief first marriage in Italy was annulled, De Laurentiis and Mangano divorced in 1988, she died in 1989. In 1990, he married Martha Schumacher, who produced many of his films since 1985, one of his grandchildren is Giada De Laurentiis, host of Everyday Italian, Behind the Bash, Giada at Home, and Giadas Weekend Getaways on Food Network. He was the brother of Luigi De Laurentiis, who became a film producer after Dino did, and uncle of Aurelio De Laurentiis, also a producer. In 1958, he won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for producing La Strada, in 2001, he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2012, he received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation, De Laurentiis died on 10 November 2010 at his residence in Beverly Hills at the age of 91. Dino De Laurentiis Company Official site Dino De Laurentiis at Find a Grave Dino De Laurentiis at the Internet Movie Database Who Was Dino De Laurentiis, – image slideshow by Life magazine
2.
Vittorio Gassman
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Vittorio Gassman, Knight Grand Cross, OMRI, popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian theatre and film actor, as well as director. He was born in Genoa to a German father, Heinrich Gassmann, while still very young he moved to Rome, where he studied at the Accademia Nazionale dArte Drammatica. Gassmans debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemis Nemica, in 1946, he made his film debut in Preludio damore, while only one year later he appeared in five films. In 1948 he played in Riso amaro and it was with Luchino Viscontis company that Gassman achieved his mature successes, together with Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli and Paola Borboni. He played Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams Un tram che si chiama desiderio, as well as in As You Like It and he joined the Teatro Nazionale with Tommaso Salvini, Massimo Girotti, Arnoldo Foà to create a successful Peer Gynt. In 1956 Gassman played the role in a production of Othello. He was so well received by his acting in the series entitled Il Mattatore that Il Mattatore became the nickname that accompanied him for the rest of his life. Gassmans debut in the commedia allitaliana genre was rather accidental, in Mario Monicellis I soliti ignoti, famous movies featuring Gassman include, Il sorpasso, La Grande Guerra, I mostri, LArmata Brancaleone, Profumo di donna and Ceravamo tanto amati. He directed Adelchi, a work by Alessandro Manzoni. Gassman brought this production to half a million spectators, crossing Italy with his Teatro Popolare Itinerante and his productions have included many of the famous authors and playwrights of the 20th century, with repeated returns to the classics of Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky and the Greek tragicians. He also founded a school in Florence, which educated many of the more talented actors of the current generation of Italian thespians. In cinema, he worked both in Italy and abroad. He met and fell in love with American actress Shelley Winters while she was touring Europe with fiancé Farley Granger, when Winters was forced to return to Hollywood to fulfill contractual obligations, he followed her there and married her. With his natural charisma and his fluency in English he scored a number of roles in Hollywood, including Rhapsody with Elizabeth Taylor and The Glass Wall before returning to Italy and the theatre. While rehearsing Hamlet, he began an affair with Anna Maria Ferrero, his 16-year-old Ophelia and he and Winters were forced to work together on Mambo just as their marriage was unraveling, providing fodder for tabloids all over the world. He later voiced Mufasa in the Italian version of The Lion King, Gassman married three actresses, Nora Ricci, Shelley Winters, and Diletta DAndrea, by whom he had a son, Jacopo. In addition, he had an affair with actress Juliette Mayniel and he rendered them with the same professional skill that made him famous while reciting Dantes Divine Comedy. On 29 June 2000, Gassman died of an attack at his home in Rome
3.
Nino Manfredi
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Saturnino Nino Manfredi was one of the most prominent Italian actors in the commedia allitaliana genre. He was also a film and stage director, a screenwriter, a playwright, a comedian, a singer, an author, a radio and television presenter and a voice actor. During his career he won awards, including six David di Donatello awards, six Nastro dArgento awards. Manfredi was born in Castro dei Volsci, Frosinone into a family of farmers. In October 1945 he graduated in law with a thesis in criminal law, without practicing the profession. Manfredi made his stage debut in 1947, working in plays directed by Luigi Squarzina. The same year, he entered the Maltagliati-Gassman stage company, mostly acting in dramatic roles, in 1948 he entered the company of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano under Giorgio Strehler, playing in tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet and The Storm. The same year he started working on radio as a comedian, in 1949 he made his film debut in the melodrama Monastero di Santa Chiara. In 1952 he worked with Eduardo De Filippo in Tre atti unici, along with Tino Buazzelli, Paolo Panelli, the same year he entered the revue company of the Nava sisters, and started working as a voice actor and a dubber. In 1955 he took part to his first high-profile films, The Bachelor by Antonio Pietrangeli, in 1958 Manfredi got his first film roles as main actor. The same year he formed a company with Delia Scala and Paolo Panelli. The success immediately got him a contract with Dino De Laurentiis which he dropped one year to be free to choose his favorite projects. In 1962 Manfredi enjoyed a larger success playing the title role in the stage musical Rugantino, with which he toured also in Canada, Usa. The same year he directed the critically apprecciated segment Lavventura di un soldato in the anthology film Of Wayward Love, in 1969, with Nellanno del Signore, he started a fruitful collaboration with the director Luigi Magni. In the same period he started collaborating, often uncredited, to the screenplays of his films, in 1972 he got a major television success playing Geppetto in the Luigi Comencinis adaptation The Adventures of Pinocchio. Following his last film as director and two hit films starred alongside Renato Pozzetto, in the 1980s Manfredi significantly slowed his cinema activities. In 1983 he debuted as author with the book Proverbi e altre cose romanesche, while in 1984 he signed his first work as playwright and stage director, in 1990 he received a David di Donatello career award. In 1992, after having first accepted to be a candidate at the elections with the Pannella List, in 1993, during the shooting of Un commissario a Roma, he suffered a hypoxia which compromised his memory functions
4.
Alberto Sordi
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Alberto Sordi, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian actor. He was also a director and the dubbing voice of Oliver Hardy in the Italian version of the Laurel & Hardy films. Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician, Sordi enrolled in Milans dramatic arts academy but was kicked out because of his thick Roman accent, in the meantime he studied to be an opera singer, a bass. It was his accent and voice that would prove to be his trademark. In a career spanned seven decades, Sordi established himself as an icon of Italian cinema with his representative skills at both comedy and light drama. His movie career began in the late 1930s with bit parts, after the war he began working as a dubber for the Italian versions of Laurel and Hardy shorts, voicing Oliver Hardy. In 1959 he appeared in Monicellis The Great War, considered by many critics, the Hollywood Foreign Press recognized his abilities when he was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Il diavolo. Sordi acted alongside Britain’s David Niven in the World War II comedy The Best of Enemies and in 1965 he was in another highly regarded comedy, in 1969 he was a member of the jury at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1984, he directed and co-scripted Tutti dentro, in which he played a judge who has warrants for corruption served on ministers and businessmen. Alberto Sordi was really masterful in two roles, one being the one of the underdog, militating against injustices and prevarications. In 1985, he was a member of the jury at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival, Sordi died shortly before his eighty-third birthday following a heart attack. Sordi was also a big supporter of AS Roma football team, Sordi provided the voice of Oliver Hardy in the Italian dubs of more than forty Laurel and Hardy films from 1939 to 1951. He also appeared as an actor in other Italian-language versions. 1938, Avventura a Vallechiara, directed by John G. by Marcello Marchesi, directed by Mario Mattòli 1944-1945, Un mondo di armonie, by Michele Galdieri 1945-1946, Soffia so. By Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini Soffia so,2, by Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini 1947-1948, E lui dice. In 1999, the city of Rome made him honorary mayor for a day to celebrate his eightieth birthday, at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor award for Detenuto in attesa di giudizio. At the 13th Moscow International Film Festival he won a Special Prize for I Know That You Know That I Know and he received honorary citizenship from Kansas City, Missouri, for his references to the city in the 1954 film Un americano a Roma. Alberto Sordi at the Internet Movie Database Geographical coordinates and pictures of his grave Alberto Sordi
