In 1978 I conceived and executed a photo journalistic series about Italians who succeeded in Hollywood. Included were actors Raf Vallone and Cesare Da Nova, cinematographer Mario Tosi, creature maker Carlo Rambaldi, producer Dino De Laurentiis, costume designer Nino Novarese, Antonio Villani, director of AFI (American Film Institute), Disney artist Claudio Mazzoli. Everyone graciously posed for my cameras and gave me an interview, that I wrote in Italian (except for De Laurentiis, busy producing Hurricane)
RAF VALLONE (c( Elisa Leonelli
RAF VALLONE (born Raffaele Vallone in Tropea, Calabria, February 17, 1916, died October 31, 2002) starred in Italian movies like Bitter Rice (Riso amaro 1948) with Silvana Mangano, Two Women (La ciociara, 1960) by Vittorio De Sica with Sophia Loren, in American movies like A View from the Bridge (1962) directed by Sidney Lumet from the 1955 play by Arthur Miller. I photographed him in various Los Angeles locations and in my studio with wife Elena and daughter Eleonora.
CESARE DANOVA (c) Elisa Leonelli
CESARE DANOVA (born Cesare Deitinger in Rome March 1, 1926, died March 19, 1992) was a famous actor of post-war Italy, nicknamed the Italian Errol Flynn. He acted in Cleopatra (1963) by Joseph Mankiewicz with Elizabeth Taylor. I photographed him in his Hollywood home with wife Patricia.
MARIO TOSI (c) Elisa Leonelli
MARIO TOSI (born in Rome May 11, 1935, died November 11, 2021) was the cinematographer of movies like Hearts of the West (1975) with Jeff Bridges, Carrie (1976) by Brian De Palma with Sissy Spacek, The Betsy (1978) with Laurence Olivier. When I photographed him in his Roman-themed home, he was preparing to shoot The Stunt Man (1980) with Peter O’Toole.
CARLO RAMBALDI (c)1978 Elisa Leonelli
CARLO RAMBALDI (born in Ferrara, September 15, 1925, died August 10, 2012) was the genius maker of creatures like King Kong for the 1976 remake produced by Dino De Laurentiis starring Jessica Lange and the alien in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978) by Steven Spielberg. I met him in Los Angeles in 1976 when he was working on The White Buffalo (1977), photographed him at the studio and at his home with wife Bruna and children Alessandro, Vittorio, Daniela.
DINO DE LAURENTIIS (born Agostino De Laurentiis in Naples August 8, 1919, died November 10, 2010) produced movies in Italy like La Strada (1954) and Nights of Cabiria (1955) by Federico Fellini and in Hollywood. I worked for him as a translator of scripts from English into Italian, after he opened his offices in Beverly Hills in 1976, I was hired to shoot in my studio special photography of Dayton Ka’ne, the Hawaiian star of Hurricane (1979).
NINO NOVARESE (c) Elisa Leonelli
NINO NOVARESE (born Vittorio Nino Novarese in Rome May 15, 1907, died October 17, 1983). Costume designer for movies like Cleopatra (1963) with Elizabeth Taylor, The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) with Charlton Heston, The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Cromwell (1970). I met him in his Los Angeles home, he then asked me to photograph his two Oscar statuettes in my studio.
ANTONIO VELLANI (c) Elisa Leonelli
ANTONIO VELLANI (born in Bologna 1922, died November 1989) Director of AFI (American Film Institute) Film School, moved to Los Angeles after college to study film at USC. He gave me a warm welcome in the grandiose AFI building, as a fellow graduate from Bologna university, the oldest in the world.
CLAUDIO MAZZOLI (born in Mantova December 15, 1942), while visiting Los Angeles in 1976, he was introduced by Nino Novarese to meet with Disney Imagineering and was hired to design EPCOT. I photographed him at home with wife Mercede and son Marco, and in the WED offices with his designs.
As he is the only one of the above men still alive, I contacted him through his Facebook page, spoke with him, and he told me about a recent exhibit of his art work in Piacenza where he now lives. He was and continues to be so amazing that I wrote a separate article about him, Claudio Mazzoli, Renaissance Artist.
A few photos from this series were published on 1979 in the California Living color supplement of Los Angeles Herald Examiner entirely devoted to my work as a photojournalist. I was the only woman featured in this series about photographers. I guess I had also become successful as an Italian in Hollywood.
