Biography for
Dino De Laurentiis (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

8 August 1919, Torre Annunziata, Campania, Italy

Birth Name

Agostino De Laurentiis

Height

5' 4" (1.63 m)

Mini Biography

Produced several prestigious Italian films in collaboration with Carlo Ponti in the 1950s before turning to grandiose international productions. After the failure of his massive Dinocitta' Studios in Rome, De Laurentiis moved to the US. His taste for overblown spectacle has led to some expensive failures (Hurricane (1979)and Tai-Pan (1986)), though he was also behind such critically lauded productions as Ragtime (1981) and Blue Velvet (1986). In 1984 De Laurentiis unveiled the DEG (DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group) Film Studios in Wilmington, NC, but the venture was a failure and its founder bowed out in 1988. Raffaella De Laurentiis, the second of his four children with actress Silvana Mangano, is a Hollywood-based producer who formed her own company in 1987.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Serg Pageen

Mini Biography

Dino De Laurentiis left home at age 17 to enrol in film school, supporting himself as an actor, extra, propman, or any other job he could get in the film industry. His persistence paid off, and by the time he reached his 20th birthday he already had one produced film under his belt. After serving in the Italian army during World War II, De Laurentiis went back into film production, and in 1946 scored a critical and commercial international hit with Riso amaro (1949) ("Bitter Rice"). He later married its star, Silvana Mangano. De Laurentiis eventually formed a partnership with producer Carlo Ponti, and the team had a string of hits, including several by director Federico Fellini. After the partnership dissolved, De Laurentiis embarked on a plan to build his own studio facilities, which would enable him to make the kind of massive spectacles he wanted to make. The studio complex, called Dinocitta', eventually was forced to close down due to a combination of hard times in the Italian film industry and a string of flops by De Laurentiis himself. De Laurentiis eventually sold the property to the Italian government and moved his base of production to the United States. He again opened up a film production complex in Wilmington, North Carolina, called DEG Studios, but was eventually forced by economic conditions to sell that, too. De Laurentiis has had some critical successes since his move to the U.S. (Ragtime (1981)), but most of his U.S. productions have been critically lambasted, although several have been commercial successes.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Serg Pageen

Spouse

Martha De Laurentiis	(7 April 1990 - present) 2 children
Silvana Mangano	(17 July 1949 - 16 December 1989) (her death) 4 children

Trivia

Born at 5:0am-CEST.

Referred to by critics Harry and Michael Medved as "Dino Di Horrendous" in their 1980 book "The Golden Turkey Awards" after having produced a succession of costly failures during the previous decade (e.g., the remake King Kong (1976)).

Announced on February 13, 2001, as recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 2001 Academy Awards.

Changed the name of the big screen adaptation of Thomas Harris's "Red Dragon" novel to Manhunter (1986). This was due to the fact that he had a flop with Long de xin (1985) ("The Year of the Dragon") previously and didn't want to tempt fate by having another movie with the word "dragon" in it.

Uncle of Aurelio De Laurentiis.

Brother of Luigi De Laurentiis.

Grandfather of Dino De Laurentiis, Giada De Laurentiis, Eloisa De Laurentiis and Igor De Laurentiis.

His only son Federico De Laurentiis (28 February 1955 - 15 July 1981) died at 26, in airplane crash.

Children with with second wife Martha De Laurentiis: Carolyna De Laurentiis and Dina De Laurentiis.

Children with first wife Silvana Mangano: Veronica De Laurentiis, Raffaella De Laurentiis, Federico De Laurentiis and Francesca DeLaurentiis.

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