Cecchi Gori, Mario

(1920-1993)

   Producer. One of the leading producers in the Italian film industry for much of the postwar period, Mario Cecchi Gori began working in films as production manager for Dino De Laurentiis on Giuseppe De Santis's Riso amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949). In the late 1950s he founded his own production company, Fair Film, and achieved his first significant box office success with Dino Risi's II sorpasso (The Easy Life, 1962). He subsequently worked with directors such as Risi, Ettore Scola, Mario Monicelli, and others to produce many of the classic films of the commedia all'italiana, winning the David di Donatello for Best Production with Risi's La tigre (The Tiger and the Pussycat, 1967). In the 1970s he also moved successfully into the areas of exhibition, cable TV, and home video distribution. In the 1980s, via a number of different companies, the Cecchi Gori Group collaborated on a host of productions with Intercapital and CG Silver Film before forming the Gruppo Penta with Silvio Berlusconi, subsequently dissolved in 1994. In 1990, as well as receiving the David for Best Producer for Gabriele Salvatores's Turne (Tour, 1990), Cecchi Gori was also awarded a David for his career. Among his other production credits were Federico Fellini's La voce della luna (The Voice of the Moon, 1989) and Gabriele Salvatores's Mediterraneo (1991).

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira