Born in
Ferrara, Italy, in 1888 to a wealthy family, Vittorio Rietti was the eleventh of the twelve children of Samuele and Lucia Rietti. At the age of 13, he was discovered by the 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 stage debut playing in Shakespeare at
Bologna. At age 19, he had the distinction of being juvenile lead to
Eleonora Duse in her company. However, his parents, who wanted him to develop his musical talents, had him resume his studies and Vittorio studied violin at the
Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Studying together with him in Brussels was his cousin,
Vittorio Rieti (later a Broadway composer). He formed his own band, the Rietti String Players, with considerable success. He served in the
Italian Army during the
First World War. After World War I, Rietti resumed his stage career. In 1921, he founded Drama Players Theater (later called Teatro Italiano and still later, International Theater) which he ran for forty years, producing popular Italian plays of the time. He would personally translate and adapt these plays into English and play the lead. He often cast his young son, Bobby Rietti (known as
Robert Rietti as an adult), in these plays. As a sideline, he taught acting; among his pupils were
Ida Lupino,
June Duprez and his son, Bobby. His other son, Ronald Rietti, later became a film director and producer. Rietti's first motion picture was released in 1933, for which he was credited as
Victor Rietti. He would appear in around thirty-six motion pictures, including a role as Beppo in
Sinfonia Fatale (1946), the first American motion picture to be shot entirely in Italy. He made a cameo appearance in
Come Fly with Me (1963) which would be his last film. He also broadcast in some forty-three radio plays.
Stardom Rietti had a major success in the live-television production of
To Live in Peace (1951), playing the lead role, the lovable priest Don Geronimo Bonaparte, uncle of Napoleon – a part he previously played on the stage in one of his own productions. He 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 critics' Oscar for best television actor of 1951 for his performance. Due to popular demand,
To Live in Peace was re-staged for television in early 1952 by the
BBC, in 1956 by
RAI, and again in 1957 by the BBC. In addition, it was broadcast for radio in 1953 and 1956, with Rietti repeating his performance in all six productions, and his son, Robert, playing the part of Maso. In addition,
NBC's
Kraft Television Theatre anthology series televised a special color broadcast of
To Live in Peace in 1953 – the first of only two color broadcasts
Kraft Television Theatre did in its eleven-year run.
CBC Television televised it in 1957. Rietti's television success with
To Live in Peace led to his touring internationally with the play for
Ralph Reader.
Samuel French bought the book rights to the play, and published it in 1952. Producer
Sydney Box planned a motion picture of the play starring Rietti which never evolved. Eleven additional radio productions of the play were broadcast 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. He had the title role in
The Wanderer (1952) and as Professor Toti in
Against the Stream (1959), both lead roles of Italian plays he had 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 friend Ralph Levy. He guest starred on The Bob Hope Show'' in 1954.
Later life On 23 July 1959, Rietti and his son, Robert, were knighted with the title of
cavaliere by the Italian government for their contribution to Italian culture, in particular, for translating and adapting a great many Italian plays into English.
Death and legacy When Rietti was thirty-five years old, he was given six months to live by his doctors due to a heart condition. On 3 December 1963, some forty years later, he suffered a fatal heart attack. His life story was dramatized in the BBC radio play
Papa Rietti. ==Partial filmography==