​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Giovanni Pastrone, also known by his artistic name Piero Fosco (13 September 1883 - 27 June 1959), was an Italian film pioneer, director, screenwriter, actor and technician. Pastrone was born in Montechiaro d'Asti. He worked during the era of the silent film, but he influenced many important directors in the international cinema, such as David Wark Griffith, in his Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916). He died in Turin on 27 June 1959. Description above from the Wikipedia article Giovanni Pastrone, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.