Eduardo De Santis

Eduardo De Santis (born September 7, 1929 in Positano, Italy) is a former actor, film producer, writer and philanthropist best known as the founder and Chairman of Gold Mercury International a corporate vision strategy think tank and global governance award organisation founded in 1961.

Following a few initial jobs as a salesman in Italy, Eduardo De Santis, motivated by the glamour of Hollywood productions being shot in Rome in the 40s and 50s, decides to start a career as an actor. During that time he befriended many Hollywood stars that had fallen in love with Rome and were shooting in the 'Citta Eterna' (Eternal City) films like Quo Vadis? (1951), Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), Roman Holiday (1953), Spartacus (1960), Ben Hur (1959), Cleopatra (1963). His first movie breakthrough was in 1953 in the film The Ship of Condemned Women, where he played the role of a sailor. He then went to act in ten more movies including Giuseppe Verdi (1953) and Guai ai Vinti (1955).

Following his acting career he moved into production and scriptwriting working in Italy and the US. In the 1970s he witnessed the growth of Home Video in the US. Seeing the potential of the technology coming to Europe, he started buying the rights to movie libraries for Home Video in preparation for home video arriving in Europe.

Attracted by social issues, he developed the story and co-produced the El Espontaneo (The Rash One) in 1964. Directed by Jorge Grau and starring Fernando Rey and Luis Ferrin, the movie is a drama with a strong social message about inequality and poverty in cities. The movie is about Paco a young bellboy working in a luxury hotel in Madrid during Franco's dictatorship in Spain. As a side job, Paco re-sells tickets to tourists to go watch bullfights. After Paco unfairly loses his job, due to a rich client complaint, he is unable to find a new job. Without a job, his friends and family turn their backs on him. Desperate, with his working mother becoming ill, his last chance to make it is to jump in the bullfighting arena as a 'spontaneous' bullfighter to demonstrate his skills and win the chance to strike it rich. The movie is shot in Black and White (the world of Paco). The movie switches to colour in the last scenes as Paco arrives in the colour rich 'fiesta' bullfighting arena, jumps in with the bull and is tragically killed. The message of the movie is that we are all 'Espontaneos' like Paco, trying to make it in the difficult going ons of life.

...
Wikipedia