Duccio Tessari was an Italian director, screenwriter and occasionally actor, considered one of the fathers of spaghetti westerns. Born in Genoa, Tessari started in the fifties as documentarist and as screenwriter of Peplum films. In 1964 he co-wrote Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, one year later he gained an impressive commercial success and launched the Giuliano Gemma's career with A Pistol for Ringo and his immediate sequel, The Return of Ringo.