Robert Rietti
Robert Rietti | |
---|---|
Born | Lucio Herbert Rietti[1] 8 February 1923 |
Died | 3 April 2015 London, England | (aged 92)
Other names | Bobby Rietti, Robert Rietty |
Occupation(s) | Actor, director, playwright, dubbing director |
Years active | 1933–2015 |
Parent |
|
Robert Rietti,
Early life
Born in 1923, Rietti was the younger of two sons of
Rietti was also active on the stage. At the age of twelve he played Jonathan opposite
Second World War
His successful career on the stage and in motion pictures was interrupted by the outbreak of the
Career
Radio
In radio, he teamed up with Orson Welles in the radio series The Third Man (1951), and then again on the popular series The Black Museum (1952), which was broadcast to the US Armed Forces. This was to be the beginning of many collaborations between Rietti and Orson Welles, who remained close friends. He was also a regular on the radio series Horatio Hornblower (1952) with Michael Redgrave, The Scarlet Pimpernel (1952), Theatre Royal (1954) with Sir Laurence Olivier, and the classic Sherlock Holmes (1954) with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.
Television
His frequent work in television and many guest appearances made him a familiar face in the 1950s and 1960s. He is credited with 164 television appearances. He guest starred together with his father in
Films
Among the earliest of his film appearances were with
Directing ADR
With the growing popularity of epic international films in the 1950s, Rietti gained a reputation for directing the
His own voice was used to re-voice Gregory Peck's German dialogue in The Guns of Navarone (1961); and Orson Welles' in Treasure Island (1972). His voice was used in eight of the James Bond films, for which he directed the ADR; his best known work in the series was replacing the voice of Adolfo Celi in Thunderball (1965) and Tetsurō Tamba in You Only Live Twice (1967). In the last ten films of Jack Hawkins, who had lost his voice to throat cancer, Hawkins was dubbed by Rietti.
Playwright
Rietti was also a prolific playwright who translated and adapted many Italian plays (notably those of Luigi Pirandello), from his native Italian into English.[6] He also wrote several original plays which were produced on the stage, for television, and for radio. He founded and served as executive editor for 18 years of Gambit, a theatre quarterly which published international plays, including many of his own. In recognition of their contribution to the arts, he was knighted together with his father, Victor Rietti, by the Italian government in 1959. Rietti's title Cavaliere was upgraded in 1988 to Cavaliere Ufficiale.
In 1957, Rietti played Satan in the York Mystery Plays; one of these performances was attended by the Queen.[9]
Later life and death
In 2012, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the
Rietti died on 3 April 2015 in London, England, aged 92.[10][11]
He is the father of
Selected filmography
- Girls Will Be Boys (1934)
- The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
- The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
- In Town Tonight (1935)
- Emil and the Detectives (1935)
- Runaway Ladies (1938)
- Call of the Blood (1949)
- Prelude to Fame (1950)
- The Black Rider (1954)
- They Who Dare (1954)
- Stock Car (1955)
- Mr. Arkadin (1955)
- Checkpoint (1956)
- The Truth About Women (1957)
- Tank Force (1958)
- Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons (1960)
- Conspiracy of Hearts (1960)
- Sink the Bismarck(1960)
- The Story of Joseph and His Brethren (1961)
- Middle Course (1961)
- Time to Remember (1962)
- Dr. No (1962) as John Strangways and Superintendent Duff (voice)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962) as Majid (voice)
- On the Beat (1962)
- The Scarlet Blade (1963)
- Thunderball (1965) as Emilio Largo (voice)
- The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966) as Abraham's Steward
- You Only Live Twice (1967) as Tiger Tanaka (voice)
- The Italian Job (1969) as Turin Police Chief
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) as Casino Baccarat Official
- Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
- Paper Tiger (1975) as Harok (voice)
- The Hiding Place (1975) as Willem ten Boom
- The Omen (1976) as Monk
- The Message (1976) (voice)
- The Devil's Men (1976) as Sgt. Vendris (voice)
- No Longer Alone (1976) as Joan's father
- Gulliver's Travels (1977) as Reldresal / King of Blefuscu (voice)
- Avalanche Express (1979) as Gen. Marakov (voice), replacing the broken English used by Robert Shaw for the character in the original recording.
- Never Say Never Again (1983) as Italian Minister #1
- Madame Sousatzka (1988) as Leo Milev
- The March (1990) as Leo Borelli
- 30 Door Key (1991)
- Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991, TV Movie) as Franz Hoffman
- The Sea Change (1998) as Luigi
- Hilary and Jackie (1998) as Italian Flunky
- Hannibal (2001) as Sogliato
References
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
- ^ Rietti (2010), p. 176.
- ^ "Rietty, Robert". Radio Who's Who: 286. 1947.
- ISBN 978-0-95152-530-2.
- ^ "Robert Rietti, voiceover actor - obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 22 April 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
- ^ a b c Dawson, Jeff (April 1994). "And This Is Me". Empire. No. 58. pp. 56–58.
- ISBN 978-0-41377-301-2.
- ^ Rietti (2010), p. 318.
- ^ "Queen Elizabeth meets the cast". York Mystery Plays Archive. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
- ^ Weber, Bruce (5 May 2015). "Robert Rietti, Movies' 'Man With a Thousand Voices,' Dies at 92". The New York Times. p. B8. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
- Times Newspapers Limited. 16 April 2015. Archived from the originalon 6 April 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
Bibliography
- Holmstrom, John (1996). The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich: Michael Russell. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-85955-178-6.
- Rietti, Robert (2010). A Forehead Pressed Against a Window. New York: Ari Scharf. ISBN 978-1-45072-314-5.
External links
- Robert Rietti at IMDb