Martha De Laurentiis, an American film and TV producer and wife of Dino De Laurentiis, died Dec. 4 after a long battle with cancer. According to Bryan Fuller, who worked with Martha De Laurentiis on the NBC series Hannibal, she “died peacefully with her family at her side.”
The expansive producing resume of Martha De Laurentiis (credited as Martha Schumacher until 1995) includes such films as Breakdown, U-571, Hannibal, Red Dragon Hannibal Rising with her late husband, and the 2013 TV series adaptation Hannibal, developed and executive produced by Fuller.
“I met Martha DeLaurentiis 10 years ago,” Fuller said in a statement to Deadline. “She welcomed me into her home, and fed me perfectly cooked pasta overwhelmed with white truffles as I professed to her my love for Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal psychiatrist. I’m writing now to profess my love and deep admiration for Martha, the canny producer. Through decades of on-the-ground, in-the-trenches filmmaking, she evolved a signature style. Smart, tasteful, elegant, respectful and present. Always positive and always pulled together. She read every draft of every script, was on set every opportunity. She was the most glamorous cheerleader anyone could ask for. Martha supported the storytellers with all her might, every artist, every craftsperson. She treated us all like family. Martha DeLaurentiis has been and always will be The Matriarch.”
In 1980, Martha and Dino De Laurentiis, who passed away in 2010, founded the Dino De Laurentiis production company, on which she served as chairman.
Martha De Laurentiis’ recent producing credits include the 2018 feature Arctic. Fittingly, her last movie is the upcoming Firestarter, a reboot of De Laurentiis’ very first movie as a producer, the 1984 big-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.
With her husband Dino, whom she married in 1990, Martha De Laurentiis had two daughters, Carolyna and Dina. Memorial plans were not immediately available.