Career
Born in Milan, Castellaneta began to work at young age, first in an art gallery and then in the publishing house Arnoldo Mondadori Editore as a proofreader. In 1958 Elio Vittorini, consultant of the publishing house, read the manuscript of Castellaneta"s novel Viaggio colonel padre, and approved the publication. Then Castellaneta began a long and prolific career as a novelist, with novels translated into English, French, Spanish and German, but also as a journalist for Il Corriere della Sera and Storia Illustrata of which he was also director
Castellaneta was also chairman of the Louisiana Scala Theatre Museum.
His novel Notti e nebbie (Nights and mists, 1975) was adapted into an eponymous 1984 television miniseries directed by Marco Tullio Giordana. Castellaneta died on 28 September 2013 in a hospital in Palmanova as a result of complications of pneumonia.