OBITUARIES / PASSINGS / Tullio Pinelli

Tullio Pinelli, 100, the Italian screenwriter best known for his close association with director Federico Fellini, died Saturday in Rome, according to European newspapers. The cause of death was not announced.

Working with Fellini, and on occasion Ennio Flaiano, Pinelli co-wrote more than a dozen of Fellini’s films, including such legendary works as “La Strada,” “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2 .”

Four of his films with Fellini were nominated for Academy Awards. He also worked with several other leading Italian directors, including Pietro Germi, Mario Monicelli and Roberto Rossellini

Born in Turin on June 24, 1908, Pinelli was the son of a magistrate and studied to be an attorney. He served in an Italian cavalry unit before World War II and was a practicing lawyer until the 1940s, when he began writing.

Working for the Lux film company, he began adapting plays for the screen. It was there that he met Fellini, and they collaborated on a number of scripts.

The two men worked together during Fellini’s ascent as a director, but Pinelli quit during the filming of “Giulietta degli Spiriti,” feeling that he was no longer necessary to completing Fellini’s vision.

Their working association began again in the mid-1980s, when Fellini approached him for help on some screenplays, including his last work, “La Voce della Luna.”