Famed and Acclaimed Film Producer Dino De Laurentiis Dies at 91

Dino De Laurentiis, one of the last great, intrepid film producers who with unmatched showmanship shepherded movies as varied as La Strada and Barbarella, has died on Wednesday. He was 91.

"My grandfather was a true inspiration. He was my biggest champion in life and a constant source for wisdom and advice. I will miss him dearly," granddaughter Giada De Laurentiis, a star chef and host on Food Network, said Thursday.

"Our industry is a special one," he told The Associated Press in 1998. "You deal every day with different people, creative people. Every day is different at work. To produce a movie, you have to create the star, you make script, you find director. You have to shoot the movie."

"Dino always said you need three things in life: brains, heart and balls, and I hope I've exemplified that advice throughout my career," Schwarzenegger said Thursday in a statement. "`Neorealism' was invented by newspapers," De Laurentiis once scoffed while speaking about the Italian New Wave films. "Italian industry was so poor we had no money for studio, to create the set, to go anyplace. So we had to shoot everything in the street."

As an entrepreneur, De Laurentiis, pioneered the way films were sold internationally — and did it all in grand style.

"My philosophy is very simple," he once said. "To feel young, you must work as long as you can." 

Here are some of his greatest works...

• Hannibal Rising (Peter Webber), 2007
• Red Dragon (Brett Ratner), 2002
• Hannibal (Ridley Scott), 2001
• U-571 (Jonathan Mostow), 2000
• Manhunter (Michael Mann), 1986
• Blue Velvet (David Lynch), 1986
• Year of the Dragon (Michael Cimino), 1985
• Dune (David Lynch), 1984
• Conan the Destroyer (Richard Fleischer), 1984
• Dead Zone (David Cronenberg), 1983
• Amityville II: The Possession (Damiano Damiani), 1982
• Conan the Barbarian (John Milius), 1982
• Ragtime (Milos Forman), 1981
• Halloween II (Rick Rosenthal), 1981
• Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges), 1980
• The Serpent's Egg (Ingmar Bergman), 1977
• King Kong (John Guillermin), 1976
• The Shootist (Don Siegel), 1976
• Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (Robert Altman), 1976
• Three Days of the Condor (Sydney Pollack), 1975
• Mandingo (Richard Fleischer), 1975
• Death Wish (Michael Winner), 1974
• Serpico (Sidney Lumet), 1973
• Waterloo (Sergei Bondarchuk), 1970
• Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli), 1968
• Barbarella (Roger Vadim), 1968
• The Bible: In the Beginning ... (John Huston), 1966
• Battle of the Bulge (Ken Annakin), 1965
• Barabbas (Richard Fleischer), 1961
• Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini), 1957
• War and Peace (King Vidor), 1956
• The Gold of Naples (Vittorio De Sica), 1954
• La Strada (Federico Fellini), 1954
• Bitter Rice (Giuseppe De Santis), 1949