Eduardo De Santis (September 7, 1929 – March 25, 2019) was an Italian actor, film producer, writer and philanthropist, best known as the founder and chairman of

Gold Mercury International Award The Gold Mercury International Award is presented by Gold Mercury International, an International nongovernmental organization (INGO) and think tank. The original Mercurio D'oro awards were given by an association of Italian journalists to Itali ...

a think tank and

global governance Global governance (or world governance) refers to institutions that coordinate the behavior of transnationality, transnational actors, facilitate cooperation, resolve disputes, and alleviate collective action problems. Global governance broadly ...

award organisation founded in 1961.

Actor

Following a few initial jobs as a salesman in Italy, Eduardo De Santis, motivated by the glamour of Hollywood productions being shot in Rome in the 1940s and 1950s, decides to start a career as an actor. During that time he befriended many Hollywood stars that had fallen in love with Rome and were shooting in the 'Citta Eterna' (Eternal City) films like ''Quo Vadis?'' (1951), ''Three Coins in the Fountain'' (1954), ''

Roman Holiday ''Roman Holiday'' is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress f ...

'' (1953), ''

Spartacus Spartacus (; ) was a Thracians, Thracian gladiator (Thraex) who was one of the Slavery in ancient Rome, escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major Slave rebellion, slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Historical accounts o ...

'' (1960), ''Ben Hur'' (1959), and ''Cleopatra'' (1963). His first movie breakthrough was in 1953 in the film ''

The Ship of Condemned Women ''The Ship of Condemned Women'' () is a 1953 Italian historical adventure-melodrama film written and directed by Raffaello Matarazzo and starring Kerima, May Britt and Ettore Manni. It is loosely based on the novel ''Histoire de 130 femmes'' by ...

'', where he played the role of a sailor. He then went to act in ten more movies including ''Giuseppe Verdi'' (1953), Ho ritrovato mio figlio (1954) and ''Guai ai Vinti'' (1955).

Career

In the late 1970s De Santis met brand and packaging design guru

Walter Landor Walter Joseph Landor (born Walter Landauer, July 9, 1913 – June 9, 1995) was a brand designer and the founder of Landor & Fitch. He was a proponent of branding and consumer research techniques widely used to this day. Landor Associates, Landor ...

. Landor convinced De Santis to join his firm based in San Francisco California. He became a partner of the firm. De Santis helped internationalise the company and turn it into a global branding firm. Landor was sold to Young & Rubicam (now part of

WPP plc WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It is the world's largest advertising company, as of 2023. WPP plc owns many companie ...

) in 1991. Famous branding projects De Santis has worked on include the re-branding of

Santander Bank Santander Bank, N. A. () is an American bank operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Spanish Santander Group. It is based in Boston and its principal market is the northeastern United States. It has $57.5 billion in deposits, operates abou ...

, Iberia Airlines, Cepsa petroleum company,

Iberdrola Iberdrola, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational electric utility company based in Bilbao, Spain. It has around 40,000 employees and serves around 30 million customers. Subsidiary, Subsidiaries include ScottishPower (United Kingdom), Ava ...

energy and savings bank 'la Caixa' in which the famous Catalan painter

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

was engaged.

Personal life

De Santis was born in

Positano Positano ( ; in Neapolitan language, Neapolitan: () is a village and ''comune'' on the Amalfi Coast (Province of Salerno), in Campania, Italy, mainly in an enclave in the hills leading down to the coast. History The first evidence of a settle ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Eduardo De Santis was married to Spanish actress

Maria Cuadra Maria Cuadra (born Madrid 24 December 1936) is a Spanish film, television and theater actress. Career Maria Cuadra has starred in Spanish and international co-productions including: Platero y yo, Ultimo Encuentro, Vuelve San Valentin, The P ...

. They met in the movie set of 'Le Belle dell'Aria' (Beauties of the Sky) a Spanish Italian co-production of 1957 where both played roles as actors. They have three children but were divorced. Eduardo De Santis was a close friend of

Ettore Scola Ettore Scola (; 10 May 1931 – 19 January 2016) was an Italian screenwriter and film director. He received a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1978 for his film ''A Special Day'' and over ...

, Italian film director and his brother Pietro Scola. De Santis died in Madrid on March 25, 2019, due to complications caused by

Acute myeloid leukemia Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with haematopoiesis, normal blood cell production. Sympt ...

Awards

De Santis was a Commander of the Italian Republic and the

Ordine della Stella d'Italia The Order of the Star of Italy ( ) is an Italian order of chivalry that was founded in 2011. The order was reformed from the 1947 Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity by the 11th President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano. The emphasis of the re ...

– OSI (Order of the Italian Star).

External links

Gold Mercury International

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santis, Eduardo De Italian male film actors Italian businesspeople 20th-century Italian male actors 1929 births 2019 deaths Male actors from Campania