Italian filmmaker, a screenwriter and director of top Italian films, regarded as a master of world cinema. He thrived on chaos and confusion, and his films are noted for being weird, strange and exaggerated.
He was the first of three children in a Catholic family. As a child, he staged puppet shows in his bedroom. He often related the story of running away to join the circus, an incident that in actuality, lasted an afternoon until a friend took the wandering seven-year-old home. Not knowing what he wanted to do, he moved to Florence in 1937. He took odd jobs for a year and moved to Rome, avoiding the draft. He began film work as a gagman and scenarist and wrote screenplays before collaborating with Roberto Rossellini, 1944-1952.
In a career spanning almost fifty years, Fellini won the Palme d’Or for La Dolce Vita (1960), and was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won four in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, the most for any director in the history of the Academy. His Oscar-winners include La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), 8½ (1963) and Amarcord (1973). At the 65th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles (29 March 1993), he received an honorary award for Lifetime Achievement. Fellini’s other well-known films include Juliet of the Spirits (1965), Satyricon (1969) and Fellini’s Casanova (1976).
Fellini said that he was born on the day in 1943 when he met 22-year-old actress Giuletta Masina; they married on 30 October 1943. Their son, Pierfederico, was born on 22 March 1945 but died a month later from encephalitis on 24 April 1945. They were productive professionally, often working together.
Fellini had a stroke on 3 August 1993 and was in a coma since 17 October 1993. With respiratory problems, he died of a heart attack on 31 October 1993 in Rome at age 73, followed by his beloved Giuletta a few months later.
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