Joe D'Amato, (birth name: Aristide Massaccesi) (December 15, 1936 in Rome - January 23, 1999 in Rome) was a prolific Italian film director. Though he worked in a variety of genres he achieved his greatest fame in the horror arena. He also helmed many hardcore pornography titles.
D'Amato was familiar to the environment of cinema through his father who worked as an electrician at Cinecittà . He began his career as an operator, often working for Demo...
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Joe D'Amato, (birth name: Aristide Massaccesi) (December 15, 1936 in Rome - January 23, 1999 in Rome) was a prolific Italian film director. Though he worked in a variety of genres he achieved his greatest fame in the horror arena. He also helmed many hardcore pornography titles.
D'Amato was familiar to the environment of cinema through his father who worked as an electrician at Cinecittà . He began his career as an operator, often working for Demofilo Fidani. His technical ability made him valuable on low-budget movies. He directed his first movie, a spaghetti western called Scansati... a Trinità arriva Eldorado, in 1972. He used a variety of aliases before settling in 1975 for Joe D'Amato, proposed by producer Ermanno Donati to resemble Italian American director names like Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma, which became his better-known pseudonym. His earlier films included westerns, thrillers, and softcore erotic movies, such as the giallo Death Smiles at a Murderer starring Klaus...
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