Robert Rietti facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Robert Rietti OMRI
Born	Lucio Rietti (1923-02-08)8 February 1923
Died	3 April 2015(2015-04-03) (aged 92) London, England
Other names	Bobby Rietti, Robert Rietty
Occupation	Actor, director, playwright
Years active	1933–2015
Parent(s)	Victor Rietti Rachel Rosenay

Robert Rietti (born Lucio Rietti; February 8, 1923 – April 3, 2015) was a very busy actor and director. He was also nominated for an Oscar! Robert had an amazing career in movies, TV, and theater in America, Britain, and Italy.

He was especially known for changing voices in movies after they were filmed. This is called dubbing. He often helped make sure foreign movies had English voices. You might know his voice work from the James Bond movies, Lawrence of Arabia, and The Guns of Navarone. Sometimes, he was called Robert Rietty.

Robert Rietti's Early Life

Robert Rietti was born in 1923. He was the younger son of Victor Rietti, an actor of Italian-Jewish background, and Rachel Rosenay.

When Robert was nine, in 1932, he joined his father's theater company, Teatro Italiano. He acted on stage for the first time in a play called Mysterious Currents. His father helped him start his acting career, and Robert was known as Bobby Rietti back then.

He got his first movie role in 1933 in a comedy called Heads We Go. A famous movie producer, David O. Selznick, noticed him and wanted to sign him for more movies. Robert even turned down a role offered by the famous director Alfred Hitchcock! But he still made 17 movies in the 1930s. He was a popular child actor for many years. Later, he did get to work with Hitchcock in the movie Frenzy.

Robert also acted a lot on stage. When he was 12, he played Jonathan in James Barrie's last play, The Boy David (1936). This play told the Bible story of King Saul and young David. As a boy, Robert acted in 18 movies and over 120 plays!

World War II and Entertainment

Robert's successful acting career was paused when World War II started. Because he and his brother were Italian, they were held in a special camp for a short time.

Later, Robert joined the army. The army asked him to lead a group of young actors called "Stars in Battledress". This group included actors like Peter Ustinov and Terry-Thomas. They traveled all over England and Europe to entertain soldiers. In 1945, a famous actor named John Gielgud invited Robert to join his play Hamlet for troops in Asia. After the war, Robert went back to acting in theater, movies, radio, and early television.

Robert Rietti's Career

Radio Work

Robert Rietti worked with the famous actor Orson Welles on the radio show The Third Man (1951). They worked together again on another popular show called The Black Museum (1952). This show was played for American soldiers. Robert and Orson Welles became close friends and worked together many times.

Robert was also a regular on other radio shows. These included 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 Appearances

Robert was on TV a lot in the 1950s and 1960s, so many people recognized him. He appeared in 164 TV shows! He even acted with his father in The Jack Benny Program (1957) and Harry's Girls (1960). Both of these shows were directed by his friend Ralph Levy. Robert and his father also acted together in three versions of his father's TV play To Live in Peace. In 1958, Robert wrote a TV play called Candle for the Madonna, and he also played the main character in it.

Rietti (center) accepting the Honorary Doctorate of the Arts at the University of Florida in 2012

Movie Roles

Some of Robert's first movie roles were with Leslie Howard in The Scarlet Pimpernel and with Douglas Fairbanks in The Private Life of Don Juan (both 1934).

He acted in 83 movies during his career. He is best known for his work in the original James Bond films. Besides Sean Connery, Robert was the only actor who appeared in both Thunderball (1965) and the remake Never Say Never Again (1983). Some other popular movies he was in include The Italian Job (1969), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), The Omen (1976), and a small role in Hannibal (2001). He also played Robert Grant in Hell Is Empty (1967), which was produced by his brother, Ronald Rietti.

Directing Voice Work (ADR)

In the 1950s, big international movies became very popular. Robert Rietti became famous for directing the voice work, also known as ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement), for many of these films. This included movies like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the James Bond films. Robert directed ADR for over 700 movies! He was even nominated for a special award in Hollywood, the Golden Reel Award, for his ADR direction of the English version of Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He helped Robert De Niro record his voice for that movie.

Robert often hired a young Catherine Zeta-Jones to do voice work. He was very impressed with her talent. He even encouraged a movie producer to cast her when she was not yet famous.

Robert's own voice was used in many movies. He voiced Gregory Peck's German lines in Guns of Navarone (1961). He also voiced Orson Welles in Treasure Island (1972). His voice was used in eight of the James Bond movies, where he also directed the voice work. His most famous voice roles in the Bond series were replacing the voices of Adolfo Celi in Thunderball (1965) and Tetsurō Tamba in You Only Live Twice (1967). For the last ten movies of actor Jack Hawkins, whose voice was affected by throat cancer, Robert Rietti provided his voice.

Playwright and Author

Robert Rietti was also a talented writer for the stage. He translated and changed many Italian plays into English, especially those by Luigi Pirandello. He also wrote his own plays, which were performed on stage, on TV, and on the radio.

He started and ran a theater magazine called Gambit for 18 years. This magazine published plays from all over the world, including many of his own. In 1959, Robert and his father, Victor Rietti, were honored by the Italian government for their contributions to the arts. Robert's title was upgraded in 1988.

In 1957, Robert played Satan in the York Mystery Plays. The Queen even attended one of these performances!

Later Life and Passing

In 2012, the University of Florida gave Robert Rietti an honorary doctorate degree. This was to celebrate his many achievements and contributions to the arts throughout his life. That year also marked 80 years since he started acting!

Robert stayed active in his later years. He gave talks to film students at universities. He also published a collection of Italian plays. He was an active member of BAFTA, a famous British film and TV organization.

Robert Rietti passed away on April 3, 2015, in London, England. He was 92 years old.

He was the father of Rabbi Jonathan Rietti. Jonathan is an educator and speaker on Orthodox Judaism for an organization called Gateways.

Selected Movies