Dino De Laurentiis

Dino De Laurentiis was born on 8th August 1919. He was an Italian producer. He was born in Campania, Italy. He used to sell spaghetti when he was young.

The outbreak of the Second World War interrupted his studies.

His first movie was L'ultimo Combattimento. It was released in 1940. He released more than 150 films in the next seventy years. He launched his own production company, Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, in 1946. At the start of his career, he used to produce Italian Neo Realist movies. He was often collaborating with Carlo Ponti.

In the decade of the 60s, he set up his own studio. But in less than ten years, the facilities collapsed. But during this time, he made movies of different genre. He made a Christian Epic, comic book adaptations, a James Bond imitation, and even a The Godfather imitation.

De Laurentiis moved to the USA in 1976. He also got an American citizenship in 1986. In the decade of the 1980s, he made his own studio in North Carolina. The studio was named, ‘De Laurentiis Entertainment Group’ (DEG). After the launch of the studio, Wellington became really famous for movies and television shows.

He married for the first time in Italy and it was annulled. He went on to marry an actress, Silvana Mangano, in 1949. They had four children: Veronica, Federico, Raffaella and Francesca. They parted ways in 1988. Laurentiis married Martha Schumacher in 1990. They had two daughters: Carolyna and Dina.

38 out of the 500 films he has produced went on to be nominated for Academy Awards. He himself won an Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Film. He took the prestigious award home for the movie, La Strada in 1958.

He died on 10th November 2010. He was 91 years old.