Giuseppe “Pino” Donaggio (born 24 November 1941) is an Italian musician and film composer. A classically-trained violinist, Donaggio is best known for his collaborations with American director Brian De Palma, scoring films such as Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Body Double, and Raising Cain.
Born in Burano, Venice, Donaggio began studying violin at the age of ten. At the age of fourteen, he made his solo debut in a Vivaldi concert for radio. The discovery of rock and roll during the summer of 1959 diverted Donaggio’s classical career when he made his singing debut with Paul Anka. He then began to write his own songs and had a string of successes including ‘Una casa in cima al mondo’.
His greatest hit was the 1965 song ‘Io che non vivo’, which sold 80 million records worldwide and was performed in English as “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” by the likes of Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley.
His first film soundtrack composition was for Nicolas Roeg’s British/Italian horror film Don’t Look Now (1973). Since then he has composed music for several Italian genre films, including Dario Argento’s Two Evil Eyes, Trauma and Do You Like Hitchcock?. He also composed the scores for a host of notable horror movies including Piranha, Tourist Trap,The Howling and Seed of Chucky.
Selected filmography:
- Don’t Look Now (1973)
- Carrie (1976)
- A Whisper in the Dark (1976)
- Haunts (1977)
- Damned in Venice (1978)
- Piranha (1978)
- Tourist Trap (1979)
- Dressed to Kill (1980)
- Beyond Evil (1980)
- The Fan (1981)
- The Howling (1981)
- The Black Cat (1981)
- Body Double (1984)
- Nothing Underneath (1985)
- Crawlspace (1986)
- Phantom of Death (1988)
- Catacombs (1988)
- Meridian (1990)
- Two Evil Eyes (1990)
- The Sect aka The Devil’s Daughter (1991)
- Raising Cain (1992)
- Trauma (1993)
- Arcane Sorcerer (1996)
- Seed of Chucky (2004)
- Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005)
- Patrick: Evil Awakens (2013)
