Victor Rietti

Biography

Born in Ferrara, Italy in 1888 to a wealthy family Vittiorio was the 11th of 12 children born to Samuele and Lucia Rietti. At the age of 8 his family moved to Bologna. At the age of 13 he was discovered by the great Italian tragedian actor Tommaso Salvini while partaking in a charity performance. Salvini encouraged the boy to make the stage his career and it was under Salvini that he studied acting. Rietti made his debut playing in Shakespeare at Bologna. At age 19 he had the distinction of being juvenile lead to the famous Eleonora Duse in her company. But his parents who planned upon his becoming a violinist persuaded him to resume his studies and Vittorio studied violin at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Studying together with him in Brussels was his cousin Vittorio Rieti (who went on to a highly successful career as a Broadway composer). He formed his own band the Rietti String Players with considerable success. When World War I broke out he was drafted into the Italian Army. After World War I Rietti resumed his stage career. In the 1921 he founded Drama Players Theater (Later called Teatro Italiano and finally International Theater) which he ran for 40 years producing popular Italian plays of the time. He would personally translate and adapt these plays into English and play the lead from a cast that often included his son Bobby Rietti (a popular child actor who went on to a successful career of his own under the name Robert Rietty). On the side he taught acting, among his pupils were Ida Lupino, June Duprez and his son Bobby Rietti. His other son Ronald Rietti later became a film director and producer. He made his first motion picture in 1933 now credited as Victor Rietti. He would make some 36 motion pictures, his last being a cameo appearance in Come Fly with Me 1963. He also broadcast in some 43 radio plays. With the beginning of television in the early 50's he scored his first major success in the 1951 television production of To Live in Peace playing the lead role, the lovable priest Don Bonaparte uncle of Napoleon, a part he previously played on the stage in one of his own productions. Rietti had personally translated the Italian play by Giovacchino Forzano and adapted it for television. The television play won critical acclaim being voted best play of 1951. Rietti himself was given the critic's Oscar for best television actor of 1951 for his performance. Due to popular demand To Live in Peace was shot live again for television in early 1952 (BBC) , 1956 (RAI) and again in 1957 (BBC) and was broadcast for Radio in 1953 & 1956 with Rietti repeating his performance in all 6 productions with his son Robert Rietty playing the part of Maso. In addition NBC's prestigious Kraft Theatre televised a special color broadcast (The first of only 2 color broadcasts Kraft Theatre did in it's 11 year run) of To Live in Peace in 1953 and CBC Television televised it in 1957. Rietti's television success with To Live in Peace led to his touring the continent with the play for Ralph Reader, Samuel French buying the book rights to play which he published in 1952, a planned film version starring Rietti by Producer Sydney Box and 11 additional Radio productions of the play around the world. Rietti's overnight success led to his surprise appearance on the televised gala special Life Begins at Sixty and established him as a lead actor in television. His success in television continued, his more memorable performances in the lead role of The Wanderer (1952) and Against The Stream (1959) both Italian plays he translated and adapted for television. For American television he guest starred with his son Robert Rietty in The Jack Benny Program (1957) (in which he played two roles) and Harry's Girls (1963), both directed by his good friend Ralph Levy(Director of the first I Love Lucy as well as The Burns and Allen Show). On July 23rd 1959 together with his son Robert, he was knighted Cavaliere by the Italian Government for their contribution to the Italian entertainment industry in particular for translating a great many popular Italian plays into English. When he had only been 35 years old he had been given 6 months to live by his doctors due to a heart condition. It wasn't till December 3rd 1963 some 40 years later that he suffered a fatal heart attack. His life story was dramatized in the BBC radio play Papa Rietti.