Sergio Leone(1929-1989)
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
- Director
Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in Italy (usually making Biblical and Roman epics, much in vogue at the time). Towards the end of the 1950s he started writing screenplays, and began directing after taking over Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (1959) in mid-shoot after its original director fell ill. His first solo feature, Il colosso di Rodi (1961), was a routine Roman epic, but his second feature, Một Nắm Đô La (1964),
a shameless remake of Akira Kurosawa's Vệ Sĩ (1961), caused a revolution. It was the first Spaghetti Western, and shot T.V. cowboy Clint Eastwood to stardom (Leone wanted Henry Fonda or Charles Bronson but couldn't afford them). The two sequels, Thêm Vài Đồng Xu Lẻ (1965) and Thiện, Ác, Tà (1966), were shot on much higher budgets and were even more successful, though his masterpiece, Thưở Ấy Miền Viễn Tây (1968), in which Leone finally worked with Fonda and Bronson, was mutilated by Paramount Pictures and flopped at the U.S. box office. He directed Giù la testa (1971) reluctantly (as producer he hired Peter Bogdanovich to direct but he left before shooting began), and turned down offers to direct Bố Già (1972) in favor of his dream project, which became Nước Mỹ Một Thời (1984). He died in 1989 after preparing an even more expensive Soviet co-production on the World War II siege of Leningrad.