Angelo Pizzo () is an American screenwriter and film producer, usually working on films based on a true story, and usually about athletics. He is best known for Hoosiers and Rudy.
Biography
Early life and education
Pizzo grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, the grandson of a Sicilian immigrant.
[ "Angelo Pizzo Induction into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, 2014", YouTube, November 15, 2014] He graduated from University High School and Indiana University Bloomington, where he received a bachelor's degree in political science. While at IU, Pizzo joined the
Sigma Nu fraternity, where he met future collaborator
David Anspaugh.
Pizzo considered becoming a lawyer, but his father encouraged him to do something he loved.[Mike Leonard, "Buddies: Filmmakers Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh back in Bloomington where it all began", Bloom, October 2014]
Career
Pizzo began his film/television career with Warner Brothers Television in the story development group and then moved to
Time-Life Films.
[Jake Kring-Schreifels, "Twenty-five years ago, an archetypal underdog story about an undersized Notre Dame football player hit theaters—but the movie was born long before that, when two wayward Indiana natives met in college", The Ringer, October 11, 2018] After serving as Vice President of Feature Film Productions there, he worked with former fraternity brother Anspaugh to create
Hoosiers,
about a small-town
Indiana high school team winning the state basketball title.
Hoosiers earned two
Academy Award nominations. It was named best sports film of all time by
USA Today[Chris Chase, "Ranking the 25 greatest sports movies of all time", For the Win, November 11, 2015] and by
ESPN's expert panel and website users.
[ "ESPN best sports movies"] Hoosiers also is listed on the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.
[ "Complete National Film Registry Listing"]
Later films include Rudy, about a young man who dreams of playing football at the University of Notre Dame, and The Game of Their Lives, about the U.S. Soccer Team beating the English team against all odds.
Pizzo also was an associate producer on the made-for-TV movies Father Figure and Blinded by the Light.[ Pizzo profile, Internet Movie Database. Accessed Mar. 27, 2012.]
Pizzo continues writing screenplays. He also has served on the boards of the Heartland Film Festival, Kinsey Institute, and New Harmony Writers' Project.
Personal life
Pizzo lived in the Los Angeles area for about thirty years. He and his second wife, Greta Lind, settled in Ojai, California
[Nuwer, Hank. "Movie Screenwriter Angelo Pizzo," excerpted from To the Young Writer (self-published, no date).] but moved back to Bloomington in 2004 to raise their sons:
[Kuchera, Peter Noble. "Filmmaker Angelo Pizzo," Indiana Public Radio (June 25, 2006).] Anthony, born in 1994, and Quinn, born in 1997.
[ Pizzo profile, Internet Movie Database] They divorced in 2010.
Pizzo is an avid Indiana University basketball supporter and season ticket holder.
Awards
On the night of the world premiere of
Hoosiers in 1986, Pizzo was named a Sagamore of the Wabash.
[ "IHS Will Honor Indiana Living Legends at Gala", press release from the Indiana Historical Society, 2011] This is Indiana's highest civilian honor, given to those who have rendered distinguished service to the state or governor. He was awarded Indiana's Governor's Arts Award in 1995.
[[12], Indiana University Honors & Awards] In 2000 Pizzo was given an honorary doctorate from Franklin College.
He received Indiana University's Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion for Distinguished Achievement in 1996 and the school's College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010.
The Indiana Historical Society named Pizzo an Indiana Living Legend in 2011.
In 2013 Pizzo was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
[[13], Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame] He also received the Hall's Silver Medal Award, given in recognition of contributions to Indiana high school basketball by someone other than a high school player or coach.
[ "Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Honors 'Hoosiers'", WBUR, December 28, 2013] The following year he was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.
The Indiana Film Journalists Association gave Pizzo its Hoosier Award in 2015.
[Emily Taylor, "2015 winners from the Indiana Film Journalists Association", Nuvo, December 14, 2015] In 2016 Pizzo was inducted into the Monroe County (Indiana) Sports Hall of Fame
[[16], WGCL, February 10, 2016] and also was given a TXMPA Impact Award from the Texas Motion Picture Alliance.
[Samantha Calimbahin, "Red Sanders, David Lowery Among Recipients of TXMPA Awards", Fort Worth Magazine]
Film credits
-
Hoosiers (1986) — screenwriter, producer
-
Rudy (1993) — screenwriter, co-producer
-
The Game of Their Lives (2005) — screenwriter, co-producer
-
My All American (2015) — screenwriter, director
-
The Hill (2023) — screenwriter
Further reading
-
Hanlon, Steve, "Pizzo brings 'Hoosiers' memories to East Chicago", nwi.com, Northwest Indiana, February 28, 2011
-
"You Can Go Home Again: Interview with Angelo Pizzo", Bloom magazine, Bloomington, Indiana, August/September 2006
External links
