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Born in the province of Naples in 1919, in the course of his long life Dino De Laurentiis went from working in the family pasta business to being one of the most powerful independent producers in the business, first putting his stamp on postwar Italian neorealist productions and Fellini films, then later—after building his own studio facility in Wilmington, North Carolina—turning out big-budget spectacles to rival anything coming from the established Hollywood studios. A maverick outsider who loved to bet big on risky propositions from David Lynch to Conan the Barbarian, for some 60 years De Laurentiis brought a touch of the unexpected to international popular cinema with his daring, taste, and largesse, qualities sorely missed in an increasingly corporate entertainment industry.