Umberto Eco was an Italian writer, philosopher, literary critic, and semiotician. He is best known for his novel 'The Name of the Rose', which was made into a movie in 1986. He also wrote several other novels, essays, and works of non-fiction. Eco was a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna and held honorary degrees from universities around the world. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 84.