Producer De Laurentiis dead at 91

Dino De Laurentiis, one of the last great, intrepid film producers who with unmatched showmanship shepherded movies as varied as “La Strada” and “Barbarella,” has died. He was 91.

“My grandfather was a true inspiration. He was my biggest champion in life and a constant source for wisdom and advice. I will miss him dearly,” granddaughter Giada De Laurentiis, a star chef and host on Food Network, said Thursday.

De Laurentiis helped build the Italian film industry during the heyday of its New Wave, oversaw seminal American films such as “Serpico” and “Blue Velvet,” and pursued blockbusters in flops like “Dune” and critical fiascos such as the 1976 remake of “King Kong.”

In producing more than 500 wide-ranging films over six decades, he presided over an incredible mix of high and low. That the same filmmaker could be involved with Federico Fellini’s “Nights of Cabiria” and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Conan the Barbarian” would seem to contradict normal understanding of taste. Instead, he was irrevocably drawn to the spectacle of the movies.

“Our industry is a special one,” he told the Associated Press in 1998. “You deal every day with different people, creative people. Every day is different at work. To produce a movie, you have to create the star, you make script, you find director. You have to shoot the movie.”

De Laurentiis, who died Wednesday night in Beverly Hills, pioneered the way films were sold internationally. He played the part of entrepreneur in grand style, dressing in fine suits and frequently sipping cappuccino. The sprawling studio complex he built on the outskirts of Rome he dubbed Dinocitta (Dino City).

“The extraordinary thing that Dino taught all of us is the true figure of the independent producer,” film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis said Thursday about his uncle. “He always behaved in the U.S. as a major studio, even though he was a one-man show.”