Robert Rietty(1923-2015)
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Sound Department
Born of Italian heritage Lucio Rietti was "discovered" at the tender
age of 8 by his father Vittorio
(Victor Rietti veteran actor of the stage
and screen) who had noticed the boy had completely memorized a copy of
a script he had given Lucio having wanted help from his son while
rehearsing his lines for a play. Vittorio had Lucio join his own acting
school (which turned out products such as
Ida Lupino - then just a little girl), and
taught the boy every thing he knew. Lucio was quickly recognized as a
child prodigy and appeared alongside his father in scores of plays. He
was handpicked by
Alfred Hitchcock to play the
boy in Secret Agent (1936), but
being so young required schooling by law and had to turn down the part.
The early Hollywood motion picture king
David O. Selznick having seen the boy
perform, tried to sign him to an extended contract with his Studio.
Before having turned 11 years old he had been in over a dozen films the
most notable having starred in the classic
Emil and the Detectives (1935)
as the leader of a gang of kids.
He was 15 years old and on tour in the UK when WW2 broke out and being
of Italian origin was placed in a detention camp together with his
father and brother Ronaldo (Ronald Rietti
later a film director and producer). After 8 months he was released
upon special request to organize an army unit made up of professional
actors to entertain the troops. It was during this time that his stage
name was altered to Robert Rietty in an attempt to make it sound less
Italian and more Irish (who were neutral during the war). It was under
the name Robert Rietty that he came to be known best by the public.
After 5 ½ years of army service Robert returned to public attention
picking up where he had left off.
Over the next several years he participated in every form of
entertainment - in radio, on the stage, through motion pictures and the
early days of Television. In radio Robert teamed up with
Orson Welles twice for the complete radio
crime drama series The Black Museum 1951 broadcast to the US armed
forces and The Third Man 1951-1952 (aka Harry Lime) - based on the hit
film. This proved to be the beginning of a lifelong friendship between
the two and Orson made sure to use Robert in countless films of his.
Robert was also a regular on the radio series Horatio Hornblower and
Theater Royal with Sir Laurence Olivier
as well as frequent guest appearances on scores of other radio shows of
the time. In motion pictures, still only 25 years of age, he continued
to work mostly in character parts with the exception of his
performances in
Call of the Blood (1948),
Prelude to Fame (1950) and
Stock Car (1955). Also during this time
Robert was heavily involved in the Theater starring in dozens and
dozens of plays, even writing quite a few and was editor of the drama
quarterly Gambit.
He once found the script of the Italian play To Live in Peace which his
father had translated to English but had no luck convincing anyone to
produce it. Despite the fact the story was rejected countless times
Robert rewrote the script and found a producer willing to back the
project with his father in the lead role as Don Geronimo and himself as
Maso. The play became an instant success winning many awards and toured
in Europe eventually being made twice as films made for Television in
1951 and 1952. Together with his father Robert was knighted by the
Italian Government for their contribution to the Italian entertainment
industry in particular from translating a great many Italian plays into
English. His knighthood was then upgraded. Early television took up
much of Robert's time, guest-starring repeatedly in over 100 TV shows
many of them being shot live in those days. In television he often got
the chance to work together with his father again, most notably in The
Jack Benny Program episode Jack Falls Into Canal in Venice (3/10/57)
and in the pilot for the series Harry's Girls (1960). During the next
15 years most of his acting was confined to TV and films. His most
memorable performances were in
The Crooked Road (1965) with
Robert Ryan and
Stewart Granger,
Hell Is Empty (1967) produced by
his brother Ronald Rietti and co-starring
French actress Martine Carol (who died
before the end of shooting the film),
The Italian Job (1969) and
The Omen (1976) with
Gregory Peck.
During this time he made the change from actor to director (although he
continued acting) becoming heavily involved in post production work
directing and re-voicing and became unquestionably the most sort after
director of the kind known throughout Hollywood and Europe as the King
Of Dubbers and Man Of A Thousand Voices. His direction was used for
practically every film in the James Bond Series (even acting in
several) and a never ending list of hundreds of pictures. Through this
he came to instruct such stars as
Henry Fonda,
Jack Lemmon,
Gregory Peck,
Orson Welles,
John Huston,
Rod Steiger,
Elizabeth Taylor,
Sean Connery and
Walter Matthau among others. Although
over 85 Robert continues directing and acting today over 75 years after
he started.
age of 8 by his father Vittorio
(Victor Rietti veteran actor of the stage
and screen) who had noticed the boy had completely memorized a copy of
a script he had given Lucio having wanted help from his son while
rehearsing his lines for a play. Vittorio had Lucio join his own acting
school (which turned out products such as
Ida Lupino - then just a little girl), and
taught the boy every thing he knew. Lucio was quickly recognized as a
child prodigy and appeared alongside his father in scores of plays. He
was handpicked by
Alfred Hitchcock to play the
boy in Secret Agent (1936), but
being so young required schooling by law and had to turn down the part.
The early Hollywood motion picture king
David O. Selznick having seen the boy
perform, tried to sign him to an extended contract with his Studio.
Before having turned 11 years old he had been in over a dozen films the
most notable having starred in the classic
Emil and the Detectives (1935)
as the leader of a gang of kids.
He was 15 years old and on tour in the UK when WW2 broke out and being
of Italian origin was placed in a detention camp together with his
father and brother Ronaldo (Ronald Rietti
later a film director and producer). After 8 months he was released
upon special request to organize an army unit made up of professional
actors to entertain the troops. It was during this time that his stage
name was altered to Robert Rietty in an attempt to make it sound less
Italian and more Irish (who were neutral during the war). It was under
the name Robert Rietty that he came to be known best by the public.
After 5 ½ years of army service Robert returned to public attention
picking up where he had left off.
Over the next several years he participated in every form of
entertainment - in radio, on the stage, through motion pictures and the
early days of Television. In radio Robert teamed up with
Orson Welles twice for the complete radio
crime drama series The Black Museum 1951 broadcast to the US armed
forces and The Third Man 1951-1952 (aka Harry Lime) - based on the hit
film. This proved to be the beginning of a lifelong friendship between
the two and Orson made sure to use Robert in countless films of his.
Robert was also a regular on the radio series Horatio Hornblower and
Theater Royal with Sir Laurence Olivier
as well as frequent guest appearances on scores of other radio shows of
the time. In motion pictures, still only 25 years of age, he continued
to work mostly in character parts with the exception of his
performances in
Call of the Blood (1948),
Prelude to Fame (1950) and
Stock Car (1955). Also during this time
Robert was heavily involved in the Theater starring in dozens and
dozens of plays, even writing quite a few and was editor of the drama
quarterly Gambit.
He once found the script of the Italian play To Live in Peace which his
father had translated to English but had no luck convincing anyone to
produce it. Despite the fact the story was rejected countless times
Robert rewrote the script and found a producer willing to back the
project with his father in the lead role as Don Geronimo and himself as
Maso. The play became an instant success winning many awards and toured
in Europe eventually being made twice as films made for Television in
1951 and 1952. Together with his father Robert was knighted by the
Italian Government for their contribution to the Italian entertainment
industry in particular from translating a great many Italian plays into
English. His knighthood was then upgraded. Early television took up
much of Robert's time, guest-starring repeatedly in over 100 TV shows
many of them being shot live in those days. In television he often got
the chance to work together with his father again, most notably in The
Jack Benny Program episode Jack Falls Into Canal in Venice (3/10/57)
and in the pilot for the series Harry's Girls (1960). During the next
15 years most of his acting was confined to TV and films. His most
memorable performances were in
The Crooked Road (1965) with
Robert Ryan and
Stewart Granger,
Hell Is Empty (1967) produced by
his brother Ronald Rietti and co-starring
French actress Martine Carol (who died
before the end of shooting the film),
The Italian Job (1969) and
The Omen (1976) with
Gregory Peck.
During this time he made the change from actor to director (although he
continued acting) becoming heavily involved in post production work
directing and re-voicing and became unquestionably the most sort after
director of the kind known throughout Hollywood and Europe as the King
Of Dubbers and Man Of A Thousand Voices. His direction was used for
practically every film in the James Bond Series (even acting in
several) and a never ending list of hundreds of pictures. Through this
he came to instruct such stars as
Henry Fonda,
Jack Lemmon,
Gregory Peck,
Orson Welles,
John Huston,
Rod Steiger,
Elizabeth Taylor,
Sean Connery and
Walter Matthau among others. Although
over 85 Robert continues directing and acting today over 75 years after
he started.