Robert Rietti OMRI
Born	Lucio Herbert Rietti[1] (1923-02-08)8 February 1923 Westminster,London, England[1]
Died	3 April 2015(2015-04-03) (aged 92) London, England
Other names	Bobby Rietti, Robert Rietty
Occupation(s)	Actor, director, playwright, dubbing director
Years active	1933–2015
Father	Victor Rietti

Robert Rietti,OMRI (bornLucio Herbert Rietti;^[1] sometimesRietty, 8 February 1923 – 3 April 2015) was an English actor, translator, playwright, anddubbing director.^[2] With over 200 credits to his name, he had a highly prolific career in the British, American, and Italian entertainment industries. He was particularly prominent inpost-productiondubbing both foreign and domestic, often overseeing the English-language dubbing of foreign actors' dialogue. He is known for his dubbing work in theJames Bond film series,Waterloo, the 1972 adaptation ofTreasure Island, andAvalanche Express.

Born in 1923, Rietti was the younger of two sons ofItalian-Jewish actorVictor Rietti and Rachel Rosenay. In 1932, at the age of nine, he joined his father's companyTeatro Italiano, making his stage debut inMysterious Currents. His father (under whom Ida Lupino and June Duprez had studied acting) developed his son's acting career under the nameBobby Rietti. He made his motion picture debut as Fattorino inMonty Banks' comedyHeads We Go (1933). He soon caught the eye ofDavid O. Selznick, who offered him an extended film contract. Despite letting downAlfred Hitchcock, who handpicked him to play the lead inSabotage (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 filmFrenzy.

Rietti was also active on the stage. At the age of twelve he played Jonathan oppositeElisabeth Bergner inJames Barrie's last play,The Boy David (1936), which dramatised the Biblical story of KingSaul and the youngDavid. Altogether, in his boyhood years he acted in eighteen films and over one hundred and twenty plays.^[3]

His successful career on the stage and in motion pictures was interrupted by the outbreak of theSecond World War. Rietti and his brother, being Italian, were interned at Ascot internment camp.^[4] 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 youngPeter Ustinov andTerry-Thomas, who toured England, and were flown throughout liberated Europe, to entertain Allied troops. In 1945, he was invited byJohn Gielgud to join his production ofHamlet for troops in the Far East. After the war, he returned to work in the theatre, films, radio, and the latest medium, earlytelevision.^[5]

In radio, he teamed up withOrson Welles in the radio seriesThe Third Man (1951), and then again on the popular seriesThe 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 seriesHoratio Hornblower (1952) withMichael Redgrave,The Scarlet Pimpernel (1952),Theatre Royal (1954) with SirLaurence Olivier, and the classicSherlock Holmes (1954) withJohn Gielgud andRalph 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 inThe Jack Benny Program (1957) and inHarry's Girls (1960), which were both directed by his friendRalph Levy, director ofThe Burns and Allen Show. They also performed together in three versions of his father's television successTo Live in Peace and his father's television playAgainst the Stream (1959). In 1958,George Sanders presentedCandle for the Madonna, an original television play Robert had written, in which Robert also played the lead.

Among the earliest of his film appearances were withLeslie Howard inThe Scarlet Pimpernel and withDouglas Fairbanks inThe Private Life of Don Juan (both 1934). Of his 83 film appearances throughout his career,^[6] he is best remembered for contribution to the originalJames Bond pictures: besidesSean Connery, he was the only actor who appeared in bothThunderball (1965) and the re-makeNever Say Never Again (1983). Other popular films he appeared in includeThe Italian Job (1969),Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971),The Omen (1976), as well as a cameo^[7] inHannibal (2001). He played Robert Grant inHell Is Empty (1967) for his brother, the producer Ronald Rietti.

With the growing popularity of epic international films in the 1950s, Rietti gained a reputation for directing theADR in many international films like the James Bond films. Rietti directed ADR in more than 700 Films and received international recognition as the foremost director in this field.^[8] He was nominated in Hollywood for theGolden Reel Award^[6] (a technical Oscar) for his ADR direction of the English version ofOnce Upon a Time in America (1984), in which he directedRobert De Niro's post syncing.

His own voice was used to re-voiceGregory Peck's German dialogue inThe Guns of Navarone (1961); andOrson Welles' inTreasure 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 ofAdolfo Celi inThunderball (1965) andTetsurō Tamba inYou Only Live Twice (1967). In the last ten films ofJack 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 ofLuigi 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 ofGambit, 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 theYork Mystery Plays; one of these performances was attended by the Queen.^[9]

In 2012, he received an Honorary Doctorate from theUniversity 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 ofBAFTA.

Rietti died on 3 April 2015 in London, England, aged 92.^[10][11]

He is the father ofRabbi Jonathan Rietti, an educator and prominent speaker on Orthodox Judaism, most prominently for the international organisationGateways.

• 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.

• Robert Rietti atIMDb 

• 1923 births
• 2015 deaths
• English male child actors
• English male film actors
• English male television actors
• English male stage actors
• English male voice actors
• Male actors from London
• Jewish English male actors
• Film directors from London
• English people of Italian descent
• English people of Italian-Jewish descent
• British Army personnel of World War II
• English expatriate male actors in the United States
• Rifle Brigade soldiers
• English people of Jewish descent
• Actors from the City of Westminster
• Military personnel from Westminster

• CS1 maint: url-status
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from August 2014
• Use British English from July 2023
• Articles with hCards