Roberto de Leonardis (February 4, 1913 – September 21, 1984) was Italian film script translator, film dialogue writer and film lyricist, best known for his long-lasting cooperation with
the Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, being basically a monopolist in writing scripts for
dubbing
Dubbing (re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, often in concert with sound design, in which additional or supplementary recordings are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production sou ...
Disney's films into Italian, from the late 1940s to his death.
[Roberto de Leonardis]
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/ref>[Pierfranco Bianchetti]
"In ricordo di Roberto De Leonardis, il dialoghista di fiducia di Walt Disney"
/ref>
He was known as a meticulous translator, faithfully adapting the English-language peculiarities to the Italian audience. [Irene Rosignoli]
"TRADURRE SENZA TRADIRE: L’ARTE DI ROBERTO DE LEONARDIS NELL’ALICE DI DISNEY"
/ref>
Biography
He was born in Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
to a family of an Italian Navy admiral. He followed his father's career and graduated as an officer from the Military Academy in Livorno, Tuscany. During World War II he was commanding officer of an Italian naval ship. In 1943, after Italy surrendered to the Allies, his ship was captured by the Japanese, and he was detained as a POW until the Americans freed him in 1945.[
In the beginning of his film career he was a lyricist under the pseudonym "Pertitas".][
In 1949 he founded a documentary short film production company Filmeco.][ In 1958 he closed Filmeco and founded the Royfilm company, which almost exclusively did dubbing of films into Italian. It dubbed not only for Disney, but also for other studios, such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, and Universal.][
]
Commemoration
In 1997 he was posthumously inducted into the Disney Legends
The Disney Legends Awards is a Hall of Fame program that recognizes individuals who have made an extraordinary and integral contribution to The Walt Disney Company. Established in 1987, the honor was traditionally awarded annually during a speci ...
Hall of Fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
.[
The 1983 ]Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...
film '' E la nave va'' (whose Italian-language dialogs were edited by di Leonardis"And the Ship Sails On"
/ref>) has a cameo: the name of the captain of the ship (Italian: comandante della nave) is Roberto de Leonardis, a hint to the nickname of the original Leonardis, "Comandante", and his former naval occupation.[
A comprehensive biography of de Leonardis was published in 2017 by Nunziante Valoroso in the book ''Un comandante alla corte di Walt Disney. La carriera di Roberto de Leonardis leggenda del doppiaggio''.][Nunziante Valoroso]
''Un comandante alla corte di Walt Disney. La carriera di Roberto de Leonardis leggenda del doppiaggio''
2017,
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Leonardis, Roberto
1913 births
1984 deaths
Film people from Naples
Writers from Naples
Italian documentary filmmakers
Italian cinematographers
Italian male screenwriters
Italian male songwriters
20th-century Italian screenwriters
20th-century Italian translators
Italian lyricists
Disney people