NEW YORK — Imero “Immie” Fiorentino, a pioneering LD in the early days of television who worked for ABC before founding Imero Fiorentino Associates (IFA) in 1960, died Oct. 1. He was 85. In a career that extended from student theatrical productions in the 1930s and 1940s to the dawn of television in 1950, then on toward major productions including political conventions and Presidential debates involving every U.S. President since Eisenhower, Fiorentino’s success came despite a high school injury that left him blind in one eye.
At IFA, Fiorentino led the IFA’s long roster of top LDs as the firm evolved from lighting to production design, including Fred McKinnon, George Reisenberger, Ken Palius, Leard Davis, William Knight, William Klages, Greg Brunton, Carl Vitelli, Richard Weiss, Carl Gibson, Stig Edgren, Tony DiGirolamo, Alan Adelman, Robert Dickinson, Vince Cilurzo, Jim Tetlow and Marilyn Lowey.
He stayed on with IFA after the business was sold, first to Caribiner International in 1996, then to Jack Morton Worldwide, and even after 2002, when he changed gears and started working as an independent lighting and production consultant, Fiorentino was still designing the look of televised political conventions, working for Fox News in 2008.
In addition to his work in televised politics, Fiorentino led creative teams designing lighting for Disney’s Epcot in Orlando, Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose” in the Los Angeles area, the 1991 renovation of Madison Square Garden in New York and Neil Diamond’s world tours along a wide range of elaborate corporate events.
In addition to his wife, Angela, whom he married in 1970, Fiorentino has a daughter from a previous marriage and a grandchild. Services were held Oct. 6 and 7 at Riverside Memorial Chapel and St. Malachy’s Church in New York City.
