Aristide Massaccesi, known professionally as Joe D'Amato, was an Italian film director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter who worked in many genres but is best known for his horror, erotic and adult films.
41 Facts About Joe D'Amato
2.
From 1979 to 1982 and from 1993 to 1999, Joe D'Amato produced and directed about 120 adult films.
3.
Joe D'Amato was born on 15 December 1936 in Rome, Italy.
4.
Joe D'Amato's father was Renato Massaccesi, who after an incident on a ship had been declared a war invalid and had started to work at the Istituto Luce in Rome first as electrician, fixing power generators left by the United States army at Cinecitta, and then as chief photographic technician.
5.
In 1950, at the age of 14, Joe D'Amato joined his father at work together with his brothers Carlo and Fernando.
6.
Joe D'Amato assisted in the dubbing of Italian film productions and designed title and end credits with Eugenio Bava, cutting the letters out by hand.
7.
In 1952, Joe D'Amato worked as a still photographer on the set of The Golden Coach, later as electric.
8.
Joe D'Amato took on the role of director for the first time in 1972.
9.
Joe D'Amato started out with a number of small western films and decamerotici which he partly directed, partly co-directed before going on to direct the gothic horror film Death Smiles on a Murderer and the war film Heroes in Hell, both starring Klaus Kinski.
10.
The first time Joe D'Amato went to Santo Domingo was in May 1978 for the erotic horror film Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals.
11.
In mid-October 1978, back in Italy, Joe D'Amato started shooting the nunsploitation film Images in a Convent, and in early 1979, which was to become a particularly productive year, he directed the violent erotic thriller Il porno shop della settima strada on location in New York, both films produced by Franco Gaudenzi's company Kristal Film.
12.
From late June to early July 1979, Joe D'Amato went to South Tyrol to shoot and direct the horror film Buio Omega starring Kieran Canter and Cinzia Monreale, a remake of Mino Guerrini's The Third Eye produced by Dario Rossetti and Ermanno Donati with music by Goblin.
13.
For Porno Esotic Love, Joe D'Amato reused material from Eva nera, especially those scenes Joe D'Amato had shot with Laura Gemser in Hong Kong.
14.
Il succo del sesso was the only film of this period that was directed but not produced by Joe D'Amato, being a "Promo Film" production of Giovanni Perrucci's.
15.
In 1981, building on Tinto Brass's Caligula, Joe D'Amato produced, shot and directed Caligula.
16.
In 1980, Joe D'Amato had taken over a company from producer Ermanno Donati.
17.
Joe D'Amato had renamed the company to "Filmirage" and used it to produce his own and, from 1987 onwards, other directors' films for the international market.
18.
In 1982, Joe D'Amato used Filmirage to produce, shoot and direct the first film of the Ator series: Ator l'invincibile starring Miles O'Keeffe and Sabrina Siani, which was directly inspired by Conan the Barbarian.
19.
Joe D'Amato is reported to have collaborated on some of these himself as well, although it remains speculative in which function and on which ones.
20.
Later in 1985 Joe D'Amato left hardcore pornography behind and for a period of eight years exclusively shot softcore and horror films.
21.
Joe D'Amato began this hardcore-free period by directing four softcore dramas set during fascism in Italy and starring Lilli Carati and Laura Gemser: L'alcova, Il piacere, Lussuria, and Voglia di guardare.
22.
Together with Harry Alan Towers, Joe D'Amato co-produced Warrior Queen, shot in 1985 at the Elios Studios near Rome to cash in on the success of the miniseries The Last Days of Pompeii.
23.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Joe D'Amato revisited his Ator series with a concluding entry entitled Quest for the Mighty Sword, featuring the Son of Ator.
24.
Later in 1993, Joe D'Amato went back to predominantly producing and directing hardcore pornography.
25.
In between shooting adult films from 1994 to 1999, Joe D'Amato made four attempts at returning to genre films.
26.
In 1998, Joe D'Amato directed the swashbuckler I predatori delle Antille, starring Anita Rinaldi.
27.
On 23 January 1999, Joe D'Amato died of a heart attack in Monterotondo, a comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital.
28.
Joe D'Amato's best known pseudonym is the anglicized Joe D'Amato, which he first adopted as director of Giubbe Rosse.
29.
In 1991, Joe D'Amato stated he had discovered the name in some calendar and chosen to use it because it sounded promising: In its mixture of American and Italian, it was similar to those of Brian de Palma and Martin Scorsese.
30.
Joe D'Amato became the name Massaccesi was most associated with, even more than his birth name.
31.
Joe D'Amato used this main pseudonym of his exclusively for credits as producer and director and not for credits as cinematographer or writer.
32.
The directorial credit of Il succo del sesso, which Joe D'Amato directed, reads Gilbert Damiano - an allusion to Gerard Damiano.
33.
Kevin Mancuso was used for the directorial credit on 2020 Texas Gladiators ; Joe D'Amato co-directed the film with George Eastman so it can be considered a pseudonym for both Eastman and Joe D'Amato.
34.
Joe D'Amato used the name Dario Donati as director and editor on Convent of Sinners and as director on Delizia.
35.
Lupi in his monograph on Joe D'Amato argues on qualitative grounds for Santaniello as actual director.
36.
Bergman was the main actress, but Joe D'Amato directed the film.
37.
Joe D'Amato's name was used for the directorial credit because, according to Luigi Cozzi, the producer did not want it to be seen as an erotic film.
38.
In 1993 and 1994, Joe D'Amato briefly reactivated this name as directorial credit for a small number of adult films starring Luana Borgia which he directed while transitioning from softcore to hardcore again.
39.
Gemser remembered that Joe D'Amato rarely got angry, and that when it happened he usually took it with irony; when deeply angered he would shout and curse and become insufferable.
40.
Joe D'Amato recalled that, much like herself, D'Amato fell asleep easily and anywhere, even in the breaks between rehearsals.
41.
In 1999, Andreas Schnaas shot a remake of, and homage to, Joe D'Amato's Antropophagus entitled Anthropophagous 2000.