Biography
Ugo Pirro (also credited as Ugo Mattone) was an Italian screenwriter and novelist. He began his career writing for director Carlo Lizzani, starting with Achtung! Banditi! (1951).
Pirro is best known for his screenplays for Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970, co-written with Elio Petri) and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970, co-written with Vittorio Bonicelli), both of which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He received Oscar nominations for the screenplays of both films. He collaborated frequently with Petri on other works including We Still Kill the Old Way (1967), The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971) and Property Is No Longer a Theft (1973).
Pirro also wrote novels, including Celluloide (1996), which was adapted into a film by Lizzani. He was born in Salerno and died in Rome on 18 January 2008.
