Screenwriter Tullio Pinelli who co-wrote a string of Federico
Fellini's greatest works including Oscar awarded films The Road (La Strada), Nights of Cabiria and 8 ½ has died in Rome at the age of 100.

Pinelli would have turned 101-years-old in June and was the last
survivor of the group of four writers composed of Ennio Flaiano,
Brunello Rondi and Fellini himself that often worked together and
created some of Italy's best-known films.

The group's credits include the iconic film The Sweet Life (La Dolce
Vita), which gave life to the term paparazzo (and reinforced the myth
of the Latin lover) epitomized by the character of photojournalist
Marcello Rubini and brought to life by Marcello Mastroianni.

Pinelli was nominated for an Oscar on four occasions, however a win
evaded him. The (shared) nominations were for 8 ½ and The Sweet Life
(with Fellini, Flaiano, Rondi); Vitteloni (with Fellini and Rondi) and
for The Road (with Fellini).

Born in 1909 in the Northern Italian city of Turin, Pinelli studied
and practiced law but a love for writing drew him to write several
stage dramas before moving to Rome to write scripts for Lux Film under
Producer Riccardo Gualino. Once in Rome, he met Fellini at a Via
Veneto newsstand where they were reading opposite sides of the same
newspaper.

Pinelli and Fellini became a sought-out writing team, collaborating
with directors like Pietro Germi on films such as Germi's 1951 Berlin
Silver Bear winner Path Of Hope (Il Cammino Della Speranza). They also
teamed up with director Alberto Lattuada - who pushed Fellini to
direct his first feature the 1950 film Luci Del Varieta (Variety Show
Lights) that Lattuada and Fellini co-directed before Fellini went on
to shoot The White Sheiks (Lo Sciecco Bianco) in 1952 and which
Pinelli co-wrote.

Pinelli and Fellini parted ways at a certain point and then reunited for
the film Ginger and Fred (1986).

Pinelli kept on writing throughout his life and even changed genre at
the age of ninety-one with his first novel entitled La Casa di
Robespierre (Robespierre's House).

His wife, French-born Madeline Lebeau, survives him.

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