Ettore Scola

Ettore Scola was an Italian filmmaker who wrote and directed over forty movies throughout his fifty-plus year career. Born and raised in the Southern Italian town of Trevico, Scola got his start in show business in his early teens when he began ghostwriting jokes for a prominent Italian comic named Toto. His work for the comic was funny enough that by his early 20s, Scola was making a good living writing comedy screenplays for various Italian movie studios. Despite having a successful screenwriting career, however, Scola longed to direct his own films. He had his chance in 1964 when co-wrote and directed "Let's Talk About Women." The film was a minor success, which allowed Scola to write and direct several more films throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. His first major hit came in 1974 with the comedy-drama "We All Loved Each Other So Much." The film won two Italian Golden Globes and was nominated for several more, thus distinguishing Scola as one of Italy's most acclaimed directors. Scola continued directing films at a breakneck speed over the next few decades, with films like "The Night In Varennes" (1982), "What Time Is It?" (1989), and "The Dinner" (1998), all receiving wide acclaim. Scola's directing career slowed down in the 2000s, with a 10-year gap between 2003's "People of Rome" and his final film, 2013's "How Strange to Be Named Federico." With a prolific career spanning seven decades and dozens of films, Scola died peacefully on January 19, 2016 in Rome. He was 84.