Aristide Massaccesi

Joe D'Amato
D'Amato at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival
Born	Aristide Massaccesi (1936-12-15)15 December 1936 Rome, Italy
Died	23 January 1999(1999-01-23) (aged 62) Rome, Italy
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1961–1999

Joe D'Amato (birth name: Aristide Massaccesi; 15 December 1936 in Rome – 23 January 1999 in Rome) was an Italian filmmaker who is most well known for his horror and adult films.

Joe D'Amato was born on December 15, 1936 in Rome, Italy. He was the son of a chief photographic technician. D'Amato began his work in film at the age of 14 assisting in the dubbing of Italian film productions. He worked as a still photographer on the set of the 1952 film production The Golden Coach and eventually moved on to work as a camera operator and cinematographer. His first film as a cinematographer was Silvio Amadio's No Man's Island (Italian: L'Isola delle Svedesi). D'Amato's work for the next few years was devoted to cinematography on Italian productions such as Umberto Lenzi's A Quiet Place to Kill, Massimo Dallamano's What Have You Done to Solange? and some of Demofilo Fidani's low-budget spaghetti westerns.

D'Amato took on the role of director for the first time in 1972. He started out with a number of small western films and decamerotici which he partly directed, partly co-directed before going on to direct the war film Heroes in Hell and the gothic horror film Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973), both starring Klaus Kinski. D'Amato briefly relinquished directing and reverted to cinematography in films such as Luigi Batzella's The Devil's Wedding Night, Steve Carver's The Arena and Alberto De Martino's The Antichrist before he finally returned to directing with the adventure film Red Coats, in which he used the name "Joe D'Amato" for the first time.