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Riccardo Freda
Director 1909 - 1999

Riccardo Freda

Alexandria, Egypt

Riccardo Freda (24 February 1909 – 20 December 1999) was an Italian film director. He worked in a variety of genres, including sword-and-sandal, horror, giallo and spy films. Freda began directing I Vampiri in 1956. The film became the first Italian sound horror film... Read full bio →

Director Information

Full Name

Riccardo Freda

Known For

Directing

Birthday

February 24th, 1909 00:00

Place of Birth

Alexandria, Egypt

Died

December 20th, 1999 00:00 (aged 90)

TMDB ID

37197

IMDb ID

nm0292720

Films Directed

18

Biography

Riccardo Freda (24 February 1909 – 20 December 1999) was an Italian film director. He worked in a variety of genres, including sword-and-sandal, horror, giallo and spy films.

Freda began directing I Vampiri in 1956. The film became the first Italian sound horror film production.

Riccardo Freda was born in 1909 in Alexandria, Egypt to Italian parents. Freda attended school in Milan where he took art classes at the Centro Sperimantale. After school he took on work as a sculptor and art critic.

Freda first began working in the film industry in 1937 and directed his first film Don Cesare di Bazan in 1942. Freda began directing I Vampiri. I Vampiri was the first Italian horror film of the sound era, following the lone silent horror film Il mostro di Frankenstein (1920) Despite being the first, a wave of Italian horror productions did not follow until Mario Bava's film Black Sunday was released internationally.