Arnie the Barbarian hails Italian mentor De Laurentiis

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger paid tribute to the late Oscar-winning film producer Dino De Laurentiis, hailing the “genius” who gave him his first Hollywood break.

In a statement after the Italian died at the age of 91, he said De Laurentiis had taught him the importance of having guts when they met on the set of the 1982 blockbuster Conan the Barbarian.

“The world lost a great entrepreneur, genius and salesman today with the passing of Dino De Laurentiis,” said the former Austrian bodybuilding champion and actor, who is due to quit his California post in January.

“Dino always treated me like a son and gave me my first big break in the movie business with Conan the Barbarian, which launched my career.

“Dino always said you need three things in life: brains, heart and balls, and I hope I’ve exemplified that advice throughout my career,” he added.

Mr De Laurentiis, who worked with some of Italy’s best-known directors such as Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini before breaking into Hollywood, died at his home in Beverly Hills after being gravely ill for two weeks.

Mr De Laurentiis, whose career included art house masterpieces and box office blockbusters, worked with some of Italy’s best-known directors such as Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini before breaking into Hollywood.

“Cinema has lost one of its greats,” said Walter Veltroni, an Italian lawmaker and former mayor of Rome who founded the Rome Film Festival.

“The name of Dino De Laurentiis is tied to the history of cinema,” he said.

His nephew, Aurelio De Laurentiis, also a well-known producer, confirmed his uncle’s death as he spoke to reporters in Rome ahead of his departure for the funeral in the United States.

Mr De Laurentiis described his uncle as an “intellectual” who used cinema as “a way of embracing and understanding life”.

He said his uncle’s passion for film began when Dino was a young boy and flourished in the “magic climate” of the 1950s.

“There wasn’t a fascination with television at the time, but a great fascination with cinema,” he said.

“When you talked about work with Dino one thing was sure: It was fun, you would toss ideas back and forth,” he said.

Starting out in film aged just 20, he became one of the leading producers of Italy’s post-war cinema boom and the neo-realist genre. One of the first films he produced was Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice) by Giuseppe De Santis, a 1949 classic and one of the best examples of neo-realism.

In 2003, he won a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival.

Mr De Laurentiis worked closely with the legendary Italian comic actor Toto and Alberto Sordi, one of Italy’s best-loved stars whose portrayals of middle-class Romans struggling to get by became national classics.

In the 1960s, Mr De Laurentiis built a film studio near Rome known as Dinocitta – after the famous Cinecitta – that was inaugurated by US director John Huston.

His 1984 science fiction film “Dune,” written and directed by David Lynch, was a commercial flop and was slammed by critics.

He married Silvana Mangano, the star of Riso Amaro and one of the beauties of her day. They had four children together but later separated.

In 1981, his son died in an airplane accident in Alaska.