February 14 - Roberto De Leonardis

On this day, in 1913, Roberto de Leonardis was born in Naples, Italy. The son of an Admiral in the Italian Navy, Roberto followed in his father's footsteps, graduating from the Naval Academy as an officer, becoming a lieutenant in 1943. As luck would have it, the day after Italy fell to the Allies, his ship was sunk by the Japanese in the Yangtze River. He would spend the duration of the war learning English from the American soldiers he was imprisoned with.

When Roberto returned to Italy in 1945, he began assisting Alberto Liberati on the Italian translations of Pinocchio, Bambi and The Three Caballeros. He was so good at it, he was given Dumbo to do entirely on his own. His interpretation of the script and the songs made the Italian audiences go so gaga for the poor little elephant, notice was taken all the way back in Burbank, California.

Walt Disney wanted to meet the man who was becoming so instrumental in reopening the European markets to his company. When the two men came face to face, they hit it off and Roberto was entrusted with the Italian editions of almost every Disney film for the next several decades. His success with Disney led to contracts with other studios and he wrote the Italian scripts for other classics, like The African Queen and The Wizard of Oz, that were now finding their way to Europe.

In 1949, Roberto co-founded Filmeco, a production company that produced documentaries. Of the 50 or so films Filmeco made, two of them were specifically Disney, 1956's Gente di Sardegna and Italy 1961, the later for Expo 1961.

In 1958, Roberto founded a new production company in Rome called Royfilm. All of his Disney editing work moving forward was done under the new company and his work with other studios expanded exponentially. Over the years, Roberto was responsible for the Italian versions of The Godfather, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the James Bond pictures and Star Wars (as well as literally hundreds of others).

Roberto passed away on September 21, 1984 in Rome, Italy at the age of 71. His son, Riccardo took over Royfilm and continued his father's legacy with Disney, eventually cutting down to mostly television productions in the early Nineties. For all his help bringing the magic of Disney to the Italian masses, Roberto was posthumously made an official Disney Legend in 1997.