Ruggero Deodato

Ruggero Deodato
Ruggero Deodato in 2008.
Born	7 May 1939 (1939-05-07) (age 70) Potenza, Italy
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1959 - present
Spouse(s)	Silvia Dionisio (m. 1971–1979) «start: (1971)–end+1: (1980)»"Marriage: Silvia Dionisio to Ruggero Deodato" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruggero_Deodato)

Ruggero Deodato (born May 7, 1939) is a controversial Italian film director, actor and screen writer, best known for directing horror films. Deodato is famous for his 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.

Biography

Deodato was born in Potenza. He grew up in the neighborhood where Rome's major film studios are located. It was there that he learned how to direct under Roberto Rossellini and Sergio Corbucci; he helped to make Corbucci's The Son of Spartacus and Django as an assistant director. Later on in the '60s, he directed some comedy, musical, and thriller films, before leaving cinema to do TV commercials. In 1976 he returned to the big screen with his ultra-violent police flick Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man.

In 1977 he directed a jungle adventure called Ultimo Mondo Cannibale or "The Last Cannibal World" (aka Jungle Holocaust) starring famed British actress Me Me Lai with which he 'rebooted' the cannibal film / mondo genre started years earlier by Italian director Umberto Lenzi.

Late in 1979 he returned to the cannibal subgenre with his ultra-gory Cannibal Holocaust. Deodato created massive controversy in Italy and the United Kingdom following the release of Cannibal Holocaust, which was wrongly claimed by some to have had the actors well and truly killed on camera due to some realistic special effects. Deodato was forced to reveal the secrets behind the film's special effects and to parade the lead actors before an Italian court in order to prove that they were still alive. Deodato also received controversy for the use of real animal torture in his films. Deodato's film license was temporarily revoked and he would not get it back until three years later, which then allowed him to release his 1980 thriller La casa sperduta nel parco / "House on the Edge of the Park", which was the most censored of the 'video nasties' in the United Kingdom for its graphic violence. His "Cut And Run" is a jungle adventure thriller, containing nudity, extreme violence and the appearance of Michael Berryman as a crazed, machete-wielding jungle man.

In the '80s he made some other slasher/horror films, including "Phantom of Death", "Dial Help" and "Body Count". In the '90s he turned to TV movies and dramas with some success. Recently, he made a cameo appearance in Hostel: Part II as a cannibal feasting on his victim’s leg.

Ruggero has made about two dozen films and TV series, his films covering many different genres, including many action films, a western, a barbarian film and even a family film called Mom, I can do it. Known by many of his fans as a horror film director, he is actually one of the more well-rounded directors in Italy today.

Filmography

Director

• Waves of Lust (1975)
• Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976)
• Ultimo Mondo Cannibale (The Last Cannibal World) aka "Jungle Holocaust" (1977)
• The Concorde Affaire '79 (1979)
• Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
• The House on the Edge of the Park (1980)
• Raiders of Atlantis (1983)
• Cut And Run (Inferno in Diretta) (1985)
• Camping del Terrore (aka "Body Count") (1987)
• The Barbarians and Company (1987)
• Phantom of Death (1988)
• Dial Help (1988)
• The Washing Machine (1993)
• Cannibals (2009)

Actor

• Hostel: Part II (2007) as a client

External links

• Ruggero Deodato at the Internet Movie Database

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