Joe D'Amato

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 directed roughly 200 films, usually whilst also serving as producer and cinematographer, and sometimes providing script-writing duties as well. While D'Amato contributed to many different genres (such as spaghetti westerns, horror,war movies, swashbucklers, peplums, and fantasy), the majority of his films are exploitation-themed pornography, both soft and hardcore. He also founded the influential Italian film production company Filmirage (the first film he produced was the 1980 Anthropophagous). He is generally considered the most prolific Italian filmmaker of all time.

D'Amato is perhaps most well known for his horror films, many of which went on to become cult movies (such as Anthropophagous,Death Smiles at a Murderer and Beyond the Darkness), and for his hastily produced remakes of popular American films (such as the Ator series, based upon the Conan the Barbarian films). D'Amato's remakes often incorporated elements of several popular films of disparate genres, in an attempt to reach the widest possible audience. In his later years, D'Amato was almost exclusively a director and producer of adult films, becoming one of the most renowned directors of pornography in Italy.