Robert Riettii

• Name — Robert Rietti • Honorific Suffix — OMRI • Birth Name — Lucio Herbert Rietti • Other Names — * Bobby Rietti • Robert Rietty • Born — 8 February 1923 • Birthplace — Westminster, London, England • Died — 3 April 2015 • Place of death — London, England • Occupation — * Actor • director • playwright • dubbing director • Years Active — 1933–2015 • Father — Victor Rietti

Born in 1923, Rietti was the younger of two sons of Italian-Jewish actor Victor Rietti and Rachel Rosenay. In 1932, at the age of nine, he joined his father's company Teatro Italiano, making his stage debut in Mysterious Currents. His father (under whom Ida Lupino and June Duprez had studied acting) developed his son's acting career under the name Bobby Rietti. He made his motion picture debut as Fattorino in Monty Banks' comedy Heads We Go (1933). He soon caught the eye of David O. Selznick, who offered him an extended film contract. Despite letting down Alfred Hitchcock, who handpicked him to play the lead in Sabotage (1936), he made 17 motion pictures during the 1930s, remaining a popular child actor throughout that decade. They would later work together in Hitchcock's film Frenzy. Rietti was also active on the stage. At the age of twelve he played Jonathan opposite Elisabeth Bergner in James Barrie's last play, The Boy David (1936), which dramatised the Biblical story of King Saul and the young David. Altogether, in his boyhood years he acted in eighteen films and over one hundred and twenty plays.

His successful career on the stage and in motion pictures was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Rietti and his brother, being Italian, were interned at Ascot internment camp. He later joined the Rifle Brigade, but accepted the army's request for him to head "Stars in Battledress", a group of young actors, which included the young Peter Ustinov and Terry-Thomas, who toured England, and were flown throughout liberated Europe, to entertain Allied troops. In 1945, he was invited by John Gielgud to join his production of Hamlet for troops in the Far East. After the war, he returned to work in the theatre, films, radio, and the latest medium, early television.

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.

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 The Jack Benny Program (1957) and in Harry's Girls (1960), which were both directed by his friend Ralph Levy, director of The Burns and Allen Show. They also performed together in three versions of his father's television success To Live in Peace and his father's television play Against the Stream (1959). In 1958, George Sanders presented Candle for the Madonna, an original television play Robert had written, in which Robert also played the lead. • Illustration — Rietti (center) accepting the Honorary Doctorate of the Arts at the University of Florida in 2012

With the growing popularity of epic international films in the 1950s, Rietti gained a reputation for his work in dubbing. He began his involvement in Paris, during an actor's strike in Britain, and would eventually be hired for both performing and directing jobs. He was also responsible for bringing in the French rythmo-band system into the United Kingdom. Rietti directed ADR in more than 700 films and received international recognition as the foremost director in this field. He was nominated in Hollywood for the Golden Reel Award (a technical Oscar) for his ADR direction of the English version of Once Upon a Time in America (1984), in which he directed Robert De Niro's post syncing. 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; 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.

Rietti was also a prolific playwright who translated and adapted many Italian plays (notably those of Luigi Pirandello), from his native Italian into English. 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.

In 2012, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Florida for his lifetime achievements and contribution to the Arts. The year also marked an 80-year milestone for the then 89-year-old actor. Rietti remained active in his last years. He lectured to film students at film academies and universities, published an anthology of Italian Plays and was an active member of BAFTA. Rietti died on 3 April 2015 in London, England, aged 92. He is the father of Rabbi Jonathan Rietti, an educator and prominent speaker on Orthodox Judaism, most prominently for the international organisation Gateways.

• I Spy (1934) • 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) • Children of the Fog (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) • On the Beat (1962) • The Scarlet Blade (1963) • The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966) as Abraham's Steward • The Italian Job (1969) as Turin Police Chief • On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) as Casino Baccarat Official • Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) • The Hiding Place (1975) as Willem ten Boom • The Omen (1976) as Monk • No Longer Alone (1976) as Joan's father • 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

• Year — Title — Role • 1954 — Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves — Ali Baba (Fernandel) • 1955 — Land of the Pharaohs — Hamar (Alexis Minotis) • 1957 — The Passionate Stranger — Carlo/Mario (Carlo Giustini) • 1960 — The Savage Innocents — First Trooper (Peter O'Toole) • 1961 — Taxi for Tobruk — Samuel Goldmann (Charles Aznavour) • 1962 — Dr. No — John Strangways (Timothy Moxon) Police Superintendent Duff (William Foster-Davis) • The Devil and the Ten Commandments — Monsignor Trousselier (Lucien Baroux) • 1965 — Thunderball — Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) • The Secret of My Success — President Esteda (Lionel Jeffries) • 1967 — You Only Live Twice — Tiger Tanaka (Tetsurō Tamba) • The Prisoner — Number Two (8 episodes) • 1968 — Barbarella — Professor Ping (Marcel Marceau) • 1969 — The Red Tent — Finn Malmgren (Eduard Martsevich) • 1970 — Waterloo — Thomas Picton (Jack Hawkins) • 1971 — Nicholas and Alexandra — Count Fredericks (Jack Hawkins) • 1972 — Treasure Island — Long John Silver (Orson Welles) • 1973 — Hitler: The Last Ten Days — General Krebs (Adolfo Celi) • 1974 — QB VII — Justice Gilroy (Jack Hawkins) — Part Three • And Then There Were None — André Salvé (Adolfo Celi) • 1975 — A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe — Major Cabot (Patrick McGoohan) • 1976 — Space: 1999 — Luke Ferro (Orso Maria Guerrini) Sphere • The Water Margin — Voices — Episode 8 "A Man's Only Happiness" • 1977 — Cross of Iron — German officer • Gulliver's Travels — Voices • 1979 — Avalanche Express — Gen. Marenkov (Robert Shaw) • 1982 — Mozart — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Christoph Bantzer) — 4 episodes • 1985 — Anna Pavlova — Victor Dandré (James Fox) • 2001 — Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time — Bedloe

• Year — Title • 1966 — Misunderstood • 1968–1970 — Hector's House • 1969 — The Red Tent • The Sorrow and the Pity • 1970 — The Bird with the Crystal Plumage • 1972 — I Love You Rosa • 1974 — The Night Porter • 1976 — The Tenant • The Memory of Justice • 1977 — Jesus of Nazareth • 1981 — Gregory's Girl • 1983 — The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix • 1984 — Once Upon a Time in America • 1985 — Anna Pavlova • 1987 — Opera