Dario Argento was born in Rome on September 7, 1940. He is a director, producer and screenwriter, and has directed about twenty films so far. As the son of the famous photographer Elda Luxardo and the son of the 1950’s Italian film producer Salvatore Argento, Dario grew up surrounded by cineastes and developed his sense of the arts. He graduated from Catholic school, and worked as a film critic at the newspaper Paese Sera instead of attending college. In 1969 he was influenced by the master of spaghetti westerns Sergio Leone while collaborating with Bernardo Bertolucci on the story for the classic [Once Upon a Time in the West]. During the same year made his directorial debut with [The Bird with the Crystal Plumage] which was inspired by the giallo genre. As a successor of Mario Bava he started earning world-wide recognition. With the success of the classic giallo films during the 70s, especially the mega hit of [Suspiria] (1977), he was honored with the nickname Hitchcock of Italy and became a world famous horror master. Since 1990 he has worked in both America and Italy and is respected as the master of masters by a number of other remarkable directors such as David Lynch, John Carpenter, and George Romero. His most famous works are [The Bird with the Crystal Plumage], [Deep Red], [Suspiria], [Inferno], [Opera], [Trauma], [The Stendhal Syndrome], [Sleepless].