Duccio Tessari (11 October 1926 – 6 September 1994) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, considered one of the fathers of Spaghetti Westerns.

[1] 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 its immediate sequel, The Return of Ringo.

The movie was a smash hit in Europe, Russia, Japan and China.

He later touched different genres and worked in RAI, directing some successful TV-series.