The notably influential and unique Italian director Damiano Damiani passed away late yesterday, March 7th, 2013, due to respiratory failure, at age 90.
Born in the small town of Pasiano di Pordenone, Fruiti in 1922, Damiani gained prominence as a director during the mid sixties into the 1970s, releasing a number of important pictures within the Spaghetti Western and Euro Crime/Polziotteschi genres-as well as a turn directing the first Amityville Horror sequel in America-before settling into a comfortable television career during the Nineties and early millennium.
The films of Damiano Damiani were unique amongst their slam-bang action brethren, in that they often employed a bitter, intensely cynical mood amidst the political and social themes lurking just below the surface. Standout examples of this were 1971's Confessions of a Police Captain and How to Kill a Judge in 1974-both starring Django actor Franco Nero-while 1966's Quien Sabe? utilized the intense on screen chemistry of Gian Maria Volonte and Colombian actor Lou Castel to a wonderful degree within its tale of social revolution in Mexico.
Damiani passed away at his home in Rome, leaving behind a wondrous body of work which is destined to be loved and appreciated by film fans for years to come.
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