PASSINGS

Tullio Pinelli

Co-writer of Fellini films

Tullio Pinelli, 100, the Italian screenwriter best known for his close association with director Federico Fellini, died Saturday in Rome, according to European newspapers. The cause of death was not announced.

Working with Fellini, and on occasion Ennio Flaiano, Pinelli co-wrote more than a dozen of Fellini’s films, including such legendary works as “La Strada,” “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2 .”

Four of his films with Fellini were nominated for Academy Awards. He also worked with several other leading Italian directors, including Pietro Germi, Mario Monicelli and Roberto Rossellini

Born in Turin on June 24, 1908, Pinelli was the son of a magistrate and studied to be an attorney. He served in an Italian cavalry unit before World War II and was a practicing lawyer until the 1940s, when he began writing.

Working for the Lux film company, he began adapting plays for the screen. It was there that he met Fellini, and they collaborated on a number of scripts.

The two men worked together during Fellini’s ascent as a director, but Pinelli quit during the filming of “Giulietta degli Spiriti,” feeling that he was no longer necessary to completing Fellini’s vision.

Their working association began again in the mid-1980s, when Fellini approached him for help on some screenplays, including his last work, “La Voce della Luna.”

Willie King

Alabama blues singer, guitarist

Willie King, 65, an Alabama blues singer and guitarist whose career took him from backwoods juke joints to the largest blues festivals in North America and Europe, died Sunday in Alabama.

King had a heart attack at his home in the Old Memphis community of Pickens County near the Mississippi line, said band member Debbie Bond. She said he died on the way to the hospital.

King appeared in the 2003 Martin Scorsese film “Feel Like Going Home” and was named Blues Artist of the Year by Living Blues magazine in 2004.

Magazine editor Brett Bonner said King was “one of those old-school juke joint players,” but his music also reflected his lifelong role as a social activist. “He called them ‘struggling blues,’ ” Bonner said.

King often visited schools, telling his life story and teaching children about the blues music that he loved.

King was born in Prairie Point, Miss., but when he was 6 years old he moved to west Alabama with his sharecropping grandparents. At age 9, he started playing guitar -- a fascination that took him to Southern juke joints for years before he gained international recognition late in his career.

King gave his last concert Saturday night in Columbus, Miss.

-- times staff and wire reports news.obits@latimes.com