Broccoli was born in the borough of
Queens, New York City, the younger of two children of immigrants from the
Calabria region of Italy, Giovanni Broccoli and Kristina Vence. He had an older brother. Broccoli acquired his nickname after his cousin, film producer
Pat DiCicco, began calling him "Kabibble", after a
similarly named cartoon character. This was eventually shortened to "Kubbie" and adopted by Broccoli as "Cubby". near their relatives the DiCiccos. The family moved to
Florida; on the death of his father Giovanni, Broccoli moved to live with his grandmother in
Astoria, Queens, in New York City. Having worked many jobs, including
casket maker, Broccoli then became involved in the film industry. He started at the bottom, working as a gofer on
Howard Hughes'
The Outlaw (1941), which starred
Jane Russell. Here he met his lifelong friend
Howard Hughes for the first time, while Hughes was overseeing the movie's production after director
Howard Hawks was fired. Broccoli rose quickly to the level of assistant director by the time the U.S. entered World War II. He served in the US Navy during World War II from 1942 to 1947 where he met
Ray Stark. In 1951, he and
Irving Allen created
Warwick Films in order to take advantage of tax incentives available to them by producing films in the
United Kingdom with British crews, while often using American stars. Among the films they produced are
The Red Beret (1953),
Hell Below Zero (1954),
The Black Knight (1954),
The Gamma People (1956),
Safari (1956),
Fire Down Below (1957), and
The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), among others. The Allen–Broccoli partnership ended in part due to a disagreement over acquiring film rights to the
James Bond novels as Allen felt they were of poor quality. Broccoli partnered instead with
Harry Saltzman in 1961 to form
Eon Productions, which would produce the
Bond series. (See
Production of the James Bond films)
Ted Healy incident Broccoli is alleged to have been involved in an altercation with comedian and
Three Stooges creator
Ted Healy outside the
Trocadero nightclub, just before the latter's death in 1937. A source alleged that actor
Wallace Beery, Broccoli, and film producer
Pat DiCicco beat Healy so badly that he fell into a coma and died. There is no documentation in contemporaneous news reports that either Beery or DiCicco was present, allegedly because the investigation and any subsequent newspaper coverage would be routinely sidelined by the
MGM studio
fixers,
Eddie Mannix and
Howard Strickling (Mannix would later become a producer and executive for MGM), since Wallace Beery was one of MGM's most highly-paid and important actors. Beery was immediately dispatched to a long vacation in Europe until the story died down. He later modified his story, stating that a heavily intoxicated Healy had picked a fight with him, the two had briefly scuffled, then shook hands and parted ways. In other reports, Broccoli admitted to pushing Healy, but not striking him. There is disagreement over whether Healy died as a result of the brawl or due to his well-known alcoholism. Because of the authorities' lack of interest in investigating Healy's death, an autopsy was not performed until after Healy's body had been embalmed, rendering the examiner's note that Healy's organs were "soaked in alcohol" useless in determining a cause of death. without having had children. In 1951, he married Nedra Clark, widow of the singer
Buddy Clark. They adopted a son, Tony Broccoli, after which Nedra became pregnant. She died in 1958, soon after giving birth to their daughter, Tina. In 1959, Broccoli married actress and novelist
Dana Natol. They had a daughter,
Barbara Broccoli, and Natol adopted his other two children. Albert Broccoli became a mentor to Dana's teenage son,
Michael G. Wilson. The children grew up around the Bond film sets, and his wife's influence on various production decisions is alluded to in many informal accounts. In 1966, Broccoli was in Japan with other producers scouting locations to film the next James Bond film
You Only Live Twice. He had a ticket booked on
BOAC Flight 911 and cancelled his ticket on that day so he could see a ninja demonstration. Flight 911 crashed due to
clear-air turbulence, killing everyone on board. ==Later life and honours==