Washington: Martha De Laurentiis, a producer with more than forty years of experience in the entertainment industry and wife of the late Dino De Laurentiis has died at the age of 67 following a long battle with cancer.
News of De Laurentiis’ death was shared on Instagram by television writer and producer Bryan Fuller. He developed and executive produced the NBC series ‘Hannibal’, an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novels which featured Mads Mikkelsen as Dr Hannibal Lecter. De Laurentiis was an executive producer on the series.
Fuller wrote, “What an amazing lady. Martha De Laurentiis left us yesterday peacefully with her family at her side. Long live Martha and her brilliant legacy.”
Martha De Laurentiis was born on July 10, 1954. She formed the Dino De Laurentiis Company in 1980 with her partner and eventual husband, Dino. The two wed in 1990 and remained married until Dino’s death in 2010.
Martha De Laurentiis was credited as Martha Schumacher on several of her productions through 1995, including her first associate producer credit on the 1984 Stephen King adaptation ‘Firestarter’. She was a producer on several adaptations of Thomas Harris’ novels, including ‘Hannibal’ (2001), ‘Red Dragon’ (2002) and ‘Hannibal Rising’ (2007), and served as an executive producer on the critically acclaimed NBC series ‘Hannibal’, which ran from 2013 to 2015.
Other notable credits from across De Laurentiis’s decades-spanning career include ‘Raw Deal’, ‘Silver Bullet’, ‘King Kong Lives’, ‘Breakdown’, ‘U-571’ and ‘Arctic’.
Most recently, she was credited as an executive producer on director Keith Thomas’ new adaptation of ‘Firestarter’, set to release in 2022. Martha De Laurentiis is survived by her two daughters, Carolyna and Dina, as per Variety.