Dino
De Laurentiis, legendary producer of such cult films as Flash Gordon and Dune,
has died in Los Angeles aged 91, his family has said.
He
began his career in Italy working with Roberto Rossellini and Federico Fellini,
winning an Oscar for producing the latter’s 1954 film La Strada.
After
moving to the US in the 1970s, he oversaw films such as Serpico, Death Wish and
the 1976 remake of King Kong.
He
also produced four films featuring the serial killer Hannibal Lecter.
His
daughter Raffaella De Laurentiis said in a statement her father was surrounded
by family when he died on Wednesday night at his home in Beverly Hills. She did
not give a cause of death.
“Cinema
has lost one of its greats,” said Walter Veltroni, former mayor of Rome
and a founder of the International Rome Film Festival.
The
son of pasta makers, De Laurentiis was born on 8 August 1919 in Torre
Annunziata, near Naples.
After
serving in the Italian army during World War II, he founded the Dino De Laurentiis
Studios in 1947.
In
the 1950s he began work on such epic films as Ulysses with Kirk Douglas and War
and Peace with Audrey Hepburn.
He
went on to build a studio in Rome called Dinocitta, hoping to rival the city’s
famous Cinecitta facility.
There
he made a number of films including Barbarella, only to suffer a string of
flops that prompted him to move to the US.
He
swiftly made a name for himself as the purveyor of epic, slightly camp
blockbusters like Flash Gordon and the much-derided King Kong.
The
1980s saw De Laurentiis help launch the career of bodybuilder turned actor
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian.
He
also made Manhunter, the first film to feature Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’, going
to produce a sequel (Hannibal), a remake (Red Dragon) and a prequel (Hannibal
Rising).
In
2001 he was again honoured at the Oscars, receiving the Irving Thalberg
Memorial award for his body of work.
He
is survived by wife Martha, their two children and four children from his first
marriage to actress Silvana Mangano.
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