Franco Cristaldi; Producer, Oscar Winner

Franco Cristaldi, producer of the 1990 film “Cinema Paradiso” and two other Oscar winners, has died of a heart attack. He was 64.

Cristaldi Film spokesman Maurizio Riparini said the producer died Wednesday evening in Monte Carlo, where he had undergone heart surgery. Cristaldi also suffered a heart attack in April.

He produced more than 100 films, three of which won the Academy Award for best foreign film. The producer was known for the freedom he gave authors and screenwriters to participate in the filming of their works.

Described by colleagues as a kind and timid man, but also a fiercely independent-minded producer, Cristaldi was the president of the Italian International Federation of Producers when he died.

“Today there are no more producers like him, who are always around, with whom you can discuss and argue, with whom you can establish a strong rapport about what cinema must do and say,” Francesco Rosi, director of the 1963 film “Le Mani Sulla Citta” (“Hands Over the City”), told the Italian news agency ANSA.

Cristaldi’s other Oscar winners were Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style” (1962) and Federico Fellini’s “Amarcord” (1973). “Cinema Paradiso” was directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and released in Italy as “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso.”

The producer discovered and promoted the Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, whom he married and divorced.

Cristaldi is survived by his wife, Ethiopian actress Zeudi Araya, and two sons, Massimo and Patrick.