Biography
Born to restaurateur parents, Richard DiLello was a young man from Queens, New York whose life was forever changed after he saw the Beatles for the first time on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964.
After graduating from high school, he made his way to California, spending a few years in and around Los Angeles and San Francisco, avidly attending concerts, and often crossing paths with former Beatles press officer Derek Taylor, who at that point was doing publicity work for several musical artists. When the Beatles launched Apple Corps, Taylor was summoned back to London, he told DiLello to look him up if he was ever in London.
In the summer of 1968, after a short spell in Morocco, DiLello made his way to London and took Derek up on his promise. Within weeks of arriving, he had a British work visa and was hired to work at The Beatles' press office.
Serving as the "house hippie" (formally termed Client Liaison Officer) from 1968 to 1970, his duties included promotional campaigns for The Beatles, Badfinger, and other artists who appeared on Apple Records.
During the winter of 1971, DiLello would write a memoir of his experiences working at Apple titled "The Longest Cocktail Party", which was later published in 1972.
DiLello began writing screenplays in 1975, he pursued this for five years, while subsisting on his photographic work. He managed to complete three or four screenplays, which led to a meeting with producer Robert Solo, who asked DiLello to write a script about a young James Cagney in a modern day reform school, the result was the 1983 crime-drama film "Bad Boys", starring Sean Penn.
Officially launched as a screenwriter, DiLello, penned the screenplays for the 1986 television movie, "Popeye Doyle" starring Ed O'Neill, and the 1988 police procedural action-crime film "Colors", which also starred Penn and Robert Duvall.
Additionally, DiLello also worked in television. He wrote and directed a segment of the 1997 television film "Riot", which starred Luke Perry and Lucy Liu, he also wrote and produced episodes for the television shows "Midnight Caller", "DEA", and "Dellaventura".
