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| name = Victor Rietti | birthname = Vittorio Rietti | birthdate = 1 March 1888 | deathdate = 3 December 1963 | location = Ferrara, Italy
Born in Ferrara, Italy Vittiorio was the 22nd of 23 children born to Samuele and Lucia Rietti. He was raised however by his childless married sister in Peregallo. He began acting as a teenager and shortly afterwards was discovered be the greatest of Italian actors Tommaso Salvini who later recommended him to the popular Italian actress Eleonora Duse (Both who frequently toured in America). Working as a Juvenile lead role for Duse’s company over the next few years he became well known in the Italian Theater. When World War I broke out he was drafted into the Italian Army but when the war ended he picked up where he had left off.
As his success in the theater he founded the Teatro Italiano (Later changed to Cosmopolitan Theater and yet again to International Theater) which ran weekly Sunday stage production of popular Italian plays he would translate into English. He would produce and direct these plays and star in them as well, often casting his son Bobby Rietti a popular child actor who went on to a successful career of his own under the name Robert Rietty.
In Motion Pictures he appeared in comedy relief character parts throughout the 30's and 40's being now credited as Victor Rietti. With the beginning of television in the early 50's he scored his first major success being cast as the lovable priest Don Geronimo for the hour and a half live tv weekly Tuesday Night Playhouse in the play To Live in Peace by Giovacchino Forzano of which he had translated from Italian and adapted for tv having already produced directed and starred in it for his Teatro Italiano. The play won critical acclaim be voted the best play of 1951, he himself being nominated for the Oscar both for his adaptation and more notably for his own performance thereby being voted best tv actor of 1951. Overnight he had become a star of television, the public to see more of the veteran actor. Due to popular demand To Live in Peace was shot live again for televison in early 1952 and yet again in 1957 the last time being shot on film to be saved in the archives. Together with his son Robert Rietty he starred in all 3 tv production and toured Europe with it.
His success in television continued, his more memorable performances in the lead role of The Wanderer (1952) and Against The Stream (1959) both Italian plays he translated and adapted for tv. For American televison he’s guest starring with his son in The Jack Benny Program (1957) in which he played double roles and Harry’s Girls (1963) both directed by his good friend Ralph Levy (Director of the first I Love Lucy as well as The Burns and Allen Show).
On July 23rd 1959 together with his son, he was knighted Cavaliere by the Italian Government for their contribution to the Italian entertainment industry in particular for translating a great many popular Italian plays into English. When he had only been 35 years old he had been given by his doctors 6 months to live due to a heart condition. It wasn’t till December 3rd 1963 exactly 40 years later that he suffered a fatal heart attack.
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