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Photo of Fernando Di Leo

Fernando Di Leo

Writer, Actor, Director, Additional Credits
Born January 11, 1932Died December 1, 2003 (71 years)
Fernando Di Leo (11 January 1932 – 2 December 2003) was an Italian film director and script writer. He made 17 films as a director and about 50 scripts from 1964 to 1985.

Fernando Di Leo was born on 11 January 1932 in San Ferdinando di Puglia. After briefly working in Rome's film school Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, di Leo made his debut as a director as part of the omnibus comedy Gli eroi di ieri, oggi, domani with his episode titled Un posto in paradiso (transl. A Place in Heaven). Following this Di Leo wrote several scripts for Westerns, often uncredited. This included work on A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More. Some of his Westerns had uncredited literary sources, such as Days of Vengeance which is loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo.

Di Leo was a fan of film noir and wanted to make an Italian version of these films. Among his first efforts was the script for Mino Guerrini's Date for a Murder based on Franco Enna's novel Tempo di massacro written in 1955. In Di Leo's version, the setting is moved to a contemporary Rome and has elements of contemporary spy films. Di Leo worked with Guerrini again on the film Gangsters '70 which did not do well at the box office. Di Leo began directing more of his own films at the time including the war film Red Roses for the Fuhrer and a few erotic films: A Woman on Fire, A Wrong Way to Love and Seduction. From 1969 to 1976, di Leo was able to produce many of his own works with his production company Duania cineproduzioni 70. He followed this with a return to noir with Naked Violence, a film adapting a novel by Giorgio Scerbanenco, a writer who Di Leo would adapt for several future film productions.

Di Leo would make a giallo film with Slaughter Hotel starring Klaus Kinski and Margaret Lee. Following this Di Leo worked on Caliber 9 and The Italian Connection which were both inspired by the writing of Scerbanenco. He followed up this film Il Boss, a film which got Di Leo in trouble with politicians and authorities due to the film's display of connections between the mafia and Italy's major party Democrazia Cristiana. Di Leo followed this up with Shoot First, Die Later in 1974. Di Leo worked through the latter half of the 1970s directing Mister Scarface, Kidnap Syndicate, and Nick the Sting. He also wrote scripts for other directors such as Romolo Guerrieri's Young, Violent, Dangerous, and Ruggero Deodato's Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man. Di Leo's last film produced by his company Duania cineproduzioni 70 was Rulers of the City in 1976. He continued with a few more films after with the film noir Blood and Diamonds, the erotic drama To Be Twenty - both in 1978, and Madness in 1980.

Di Leo worked in television in the 1980s, starting with the television series L'assassino ha le ore contate, which involved six one-hour-long made-for-TV films produced by RAI Uno which as of 2013 are unreleased. Di Leo also made The Violent Breed and his last film Killer vs. Killers in the mid-1980s. Killer vs. Killers wasn't released theatrically in Italy and only surfaced 20 years later on DVD.

Di Leo died in December 2003.
Movies & Shows on Plex
  • Django
  • Caliber 9
  • Navajo Joe
  • Massacre Time
  • The Boss
  • The Return of Ringo
  • Beyond the Law
  • Rulers of the City
  • Shoot First, Die Later
  • The Ruthless Four
  • Johnny Yuma
  • Poker with Pistols
Known For
  • Caliber 9
  • The Italian Connection
  • Massacre Time
  • The Boss
  • Navajo Joe
  • Asylum Erotica
  • Rulers of the City
  • The Return of Ringo
  • Shoot First, Die Later
  • Kidnap Syndicate
  • Naked Violence
  • The Ruthless Four
  • Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man
  • Madness
  • Seduction
  • A Pistol for Ringo
  • Long Days of Vengeance
  • Blood and Diamonds
  • Bloody Friday
  • Beyond the Law
  • Nick the Sting
  • Johnny Yuma
  • The Violent Breed
  • Young, Violent, Dangerous

Filmography

2021
A Bunch of Bastards · as Original Film Writer
1985
Death Commando · as Screenplay
1984
The Violent Breed · as Screenplay
1980
Madness · as Screenplay
1978
To Be Twenty · as Screenplay
1975
Kidnap Syndicate · as Screenplay
1975
Loaded Guns · as Screenplay
1974
1973
1972
1971
Asylum Erotica · as Screenplay
1969
Naked Violence · as Screenplay
1969
1969
1968
1968
1968
Beyond the Law · as Screenplay
1968
1967
1967
Con lui cavalca la morte · as Screenplay
1967
1967
1967
Date for a Murder · as Screenplay
1967
Pecos Cleans Up · as Screenplay
1967
Wanted · as Screenplay
1967
Long Days of Vengeance · as Screenplay
1966
Navajo Joe · as Screenplay
1966
Sugar Colt · as Screenplay
1966
Johnny Yuma · as Screenplay
1966
Massacre Time · as Screenplay
1966
1965
1965
1964
A Fistful of Dollars · as Screenplay

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