LYNN — For years, Roger Marino was solidly ensconced in Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. Marino, who grew up in a triple-decker on North Avenue in Revere, has a fortune that’s still in the high hundreds of millions.
To say the 79-year-old retired engineer/business executive has led a fascinating life in an understatement.
He’s co-founder, former president and the “M” of computer data storage giant EMC (started with Northeastern University buddy Richard Egan); the Marino Fitness and Recreation Center at Northeastern bears his name thanks to his financial support; he bankrolled the Broadway revival of “Gypsy” starring Bernadette Peters; and he’s a former owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey franchise, famously losing some $40 million in the process.
These days, he invests in start-up companies and makes movies.
“I lost so much money owning the Penguins, and I heard you can also lose a lot of money making movies,” he said with a smile, explaining why in 2001 this life-long movie buff started up Revere Pictures, an independent film production company.
One of the films Marino executive-produced will be screened at Lynn Auditorium Sunday night. “Stiffs,” a 2010 dark comedy directed and written, respectively, by Lynn brothers Frank and Joe Ciota, will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s star Danny Aiello, the Ciotas and Marino.
Screenwriter Joe Ciota concedes that, yes, the fictional plot line of “Stiffs” is clever — a longtime funeral home is dying due to an influx of young people into a gentrified North End, meaning the morticians must whack folks to stay in business. “It’s partly based on the real life story of Langone’s on Commercial Street in Boston. They started losing business as old-timers moved out of the North End, so they started merging with other funeral homes of various ethnicities. All of a sudden, there were Chinese funerals at Langone’s in the North End. It became like the Walmart of funeral homes,” said Joe.
“The script is also based on older Italian-American men I know, like my uncle, age 75 and up, who enjoy each other’s company. They still like to put on the suit. Many of these retired men work at funeral homes, partly for the social part of spending time with their friends.”
In “Stiffs,” Aiello plays a hearse driver who bonds with fellow older North Enders and comes up with the homicidal business plan.
“We found an old hearse, like the Munsters. It was old, old, old,” said Joe. “And can you imagine driving down the Mass Pike and seeing Danny Aiello driving that old hearse,” added Frank, roaring with laughter.
“Danny Aiello is a good guy,” added Marino. “The first time I met him, he was in a corner seat at a restaurant. He’s about 6-foot-3… ‘I stood up because I didn’t want you to think I was Danny DeVito,’ he said to me. What an ice-breaker.” DeVito is 4-foot-10.
“The North End is a character in itself,” said Marino. Much-missed North End restaurant Joe Tecce’s is featured in opening scenes — it closed the next year.
The biggest challenge was finding a funeral home that could be used during filming. “We couldn’t use one that had lots of business. What if someone died and they had to hold a funeral on a day we were filming?” said Frank Ciota.
“Yeah, you don’t want to be in an old funeral home, with embalming fluid and a body in a casket, while you’re making a movie,” added Joe, drawing laughing from all.
Marino and the Ciota brothers, through their Mavex Productions company, also teamed on the critically acclaimed 2002 film “Ciao America,” a romantic comedy about a Harvard boy teaching American football in Italy. It featured such big names as Paul Sorvino and the iconic Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini. It was one of 17 scripts sent to Marino, and, he said, the best.
Marino is well-versed on classic films. He cites “Casablanca” and the Italian art film “The Bicycle Thief” as favorites. “Harold and Maude,” the brilliant Hal Ashby black comedy starring Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort as an unlikely romantic pair, also earns his praise.
“I was one of 12 Revere football players who made a movie, ‘The Syndicate,’ and it actually made money,” said the 1956 Revere High grad, who has funded a scholarship at the school since 1995.
“Stiffs” was first screened at the Montreal Film Festival and, the next week, at the Boston Film Festival. The earlier film “Ciao America” debuted at Showcase Cinema in Revere and the cast party was held at the Revere VFW Hall. Friends of the filmmakers arrived bearing pans and pans of homemade Italian food.
The publicist suggested the celebration be held at a swanky place in Boston. Marino said, “No. Let’s do it in Revere.”
“Roger’s from Revere. We’re from Lynn,” added Frank. “We don’t have to do fancy.”
“An Evening With Danny Aiello and Screening of ‘Stiffs,’ ” Lynn Auditorium, Sunday, Oct. 28, 6 p.m. Tickets: $18, www.lynnauditorium.com.