Biography for
Ruggero Deodato More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Mini Biography

Ruggero Deodato was born on May 7, 1939 in Potenza, Italy, he grew up outside Rome during his grade school years. One of his close friends at the time was Renzo Rossellini, the son of famed Italian director Roberto Rossellini . Knowing his love for the movies, Renzo persuaded Ruggero to work as a second unit director for some of his father's film productions.

From 1958 to 1967, Ruggero Deodato worked as a second unit director for several cult film directors such as Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti), Riccardo Freda , and Joseph Losey. Deodato's directorial debut was the action-fantasy Hercules, Prisoner of Evil (1964) , after Margheriti abandoned direction. Deodato's claim to fame was the spaghetti western Django (1966). His career took off for real in 1968 when he directed a number of films based on comic books characters as well as musicals. During one, Deodato met and married actress Silvia Dionisio.

Between 1971 and 1975, Deodato worked in television in directing the series "All'ultimo minuto" (1971) as well as some TV commercials for various companies such as Esso Oil, Band-Aid, and Fanta. Deodato returned to movie making directing an erotic melodrama and a police thriller. At the same time his marriage to Silvia Dionisio fell apart. In 1977 Deodato directed the notorious Last Cannibal World (1977), and later Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Deodato traveled to New York City and directed the disturbing thriller House on the Edge of the Park (1980) a semi-follow-up to Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972). Deodato made House on the Edge of the Park (1980) in just 19 days of shooting on a tiny budget. Deodato then returned to directing action and horror flicks.

Deodato nowadays lives in Rome with his current partner Micaela Rocco and still works in directing movies and occasional TV series. He is allegedly planning a sequel for Cannibal Holocaust.

Spouse

Trivia

Deodato is the director of the controversial Italian horror film Cannibal Holocaust (1980). He was arrested shortly after its premiere in Italy, and faced accusations of first-degree murder, as well as animal cruelty. He was exonerated after the actors were paraded into the courtroom alive; they had special clauses in their contracts ordering them to "disappear" for a year to increase the film's hype. Though Deodato was found not guilty, he was barred from making films in Italy for several years afterward, and the film itself was banned.

Personal Quotes

I make films that people call 'horror' because I want to make films about real things that happen in the world, and most real things aren't very nice.

[on the animal deaths in Cannibal Holocaust] I am sorry they have been killed. But you have to understand I come from the countryside in Italy. So when we were hungry, we killed and ate pigs and chickens. That's what the real villagers did who were in the film - they ate everything we killed. But also, when I made this film, I was in another mentality. It seemed natural to show this. It was like when our grandparents died their bodies would be on display to begin with, but now the bodies go straight into the ground. Things change and we have a different mentality about things like death.