IMDB

Actor

1929-09-02 · Cwm, Ebbw Vale, Gwent, Wales, UK · Male

7 series in the catalog

Vittorio Giorgio Andre "Victor" Spinetti (2 September 1929 – 19 June 2012) was a Welsh actor, author, poet and raconteur. He appeared in dozens of films and stage plays throughout his fifty-year career, including the three 1960s Beatles films A Hard Day's Night, Help! and Magical Mystery Tour.

Born in Cwm, Spinetti was educated at Monmouth School and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, of which he became a Fellow. After various menial jobs, Spinetti pursued a stage career and was closely associated with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. Among the productions were Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be and Oh, What a Lovely War! (1963), which transferred to Broadway and for which he won a Tony Award. Spinetti's film career developed simultaneously; his dozens of film appearances included Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew, Under Milk Wood, The Return of the Pink Panther and Under the Cherry Moon.

During his later career, Spinetti acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company in such roles as Lord Foppington in The Relapse and the Archbishop in Richard III at Stratford-upon-Avon; and, in 1990, he appeared in The Krays. At age 70+, Victor remained active under the theatre lights playing Baron Bomburst in the musical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 2003 and Baron Zeta in the operetta The Merry Widow in 2004. In 2008 he appeared in a one-man show, A Very Private Diary, which toured the UK as A Very Private Diary... Revisited!, recounting his life story. Spinetti was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011 and died of the disease in June 2012.

Early life

Vittorio Giorgio Andre Spinetti was born on 2 September 1929 in Cwm, Monmouthshire, of Welsh and Italian descent from a grandfather who was said to have walked from Italy to Wales to work as a coal miner, just to earn enough money to buy a plough. His parents, Giuseppe and Lily (née Watson), owned the chip shop in Cwm, over which premises the family lived and where Spinetti was born. Spinetti was the eldest of six, and his youngest brother, Henry (born 1951), is a session drummer. Spinetti was educated at Monmouth School and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, of which he later became a Fellow. It was at the college that Spinetti met actor Graham Curnow, who became his life partner.

Career

Before finding roles in acting, Spinetti worked as a waiter and factory worker. He recalled singing in London pubs in the 50s, and working as a paint sprayer to afford his rent.

Spinetti started at Dhurjati Chaudhury's Irving Theatre Club on Irving Street, off Leicester Square, London.

Film

Spinetti gained international fame during the 1960s due to his association with the Beatles. He appeared in the first three Beatles films: A Hard Day's Night (1964), Help! (1965), and Magical Mystery Tour (1967). He also appeared on the Beatles' 1967 Christmas recording, released to members of their fan club. The best explanation for this long-running collaboration and friendship might have been provided by George Harrison, who told Spinetti, "You've got to be in all our films... if you're not in them me Mum won't come and see them – because she fancies you." But Harrison also later told him, "You've got a lovely karma, Vic." Paul McCartney once described Spinetti as "the man who makes clouds disappear". Spinetti made a small appearance in the promotional video for Wings' song "London Town" from the 1978 album of the same name. Spinetti's July 2010 performance of the song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", at the Festival Theatre, Malvern in Worcestershire, was available on "The Beatles Complete on Ukulele" podcast.

Spinetti appeared in around 30 films, including The Gentle Terror (1961), Sparrows Can't Sing (1963), The Wild Affair (1964), Becket (1964), Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew (1967), The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968), Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969), This, That and the Other (1969), Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), Under Milk Wood (1971), Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (1973), The Great McGonagall (1974), The Little Prince (1974), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), Voyage of the Damned (1976), Emily (1976), Hardcore (1977), Casanova & Co. (1977), Under the Cherry Moon (1986) and The Krays (1990).

Spinetti's last on-screen appearance was in the DVD release of the independent film Beatles Stories by American musician Seth Swirsky, issued to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first recording sessions at Abbey Road.

Theatre

Spinetti's work in Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop produced many memorable performances including Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be (1959, by Frank Norman, with music by Lionel Bart), and Oh, What a Lovely War! (1963), which transferred to New York City and for which he won a Tony Award for his main role as an obnoxious Drill Sergeant. He appeared in the West End in The Odd Couple (as Felix); in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the West End; and as Albert Einstein in a critically lauded performance in 2005 in a new play, Albert's Boy at the Finborough Theatre. He launched his own one-man show of witty reminiscences, A Very Private Diary, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

One of Spinetti's most challenging theatre roles was as the principal male character in Jane Arden's radical feminist play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven, which played to packed houses for six weeks at the Arts Lab on Drury Lane in 1969. In 1980, he directed The Biograph Girl, a musical about the silent film era, at the Phoenix Theatre. In 1986, he appeared as Fagin in the musical Oliver!, which was the last professional production to use Sean Kenny's original stage design. He appeared on Broadway in The Hostage and The Philanthropist, and also acted in 1995 with the Royal Shakespeare Company, in such roles as Lord Foppington in The Relapse and the Archbishop in Richard III, at Stratford-upon-Avon, although this was not a happy experience for him.

Spinetti co-authored In His Own Write, the play adapted from a book by John Lennon with the Beatle which he also directed at the National Theatre, premiering on 18 June 1968, at the Old Vic. Spinetti and Lennon appeared together in June 1968 on BBC2's Release. During the interview, Spinetti said of the play, that "it's not really John's childhood, it's all of ours really, isn't it John?" to which Lennon replied, assuming a camp voice, "It is, we're all one Victor, we're all one aren't we. I mean 'what's going on?'" Spinetti described the play as being "about the growing up of any of us; the things that helped us to be more aware".

He also directed Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair, including productions staged in Europe. His many television appearances on British TV, include Take My Wife in which he played a London-based booking agent and schemer who was forever promising his comedian client that fame was just around the corner, and the sitcom An Actor's Life For Me.

In 1999 Victor Spinetti played in a Jim Davidson Adult Pantomime of Babes in the Wood (Boobs in the Wood) as Friar Tuck, who had been taking weed. He had been told by The Sheriff of Nottingham (Jim Davidson) to kill his niece and nephew, who were escaped convicts (one of them played by Kenny Baker).

In September 2008 Spinetti reprised his one-man show, A Very Private Diary, touring the UK, as A Very Private Diary... Revisited!, telling his life story.

Television

From 1968 to 1969, Spinetti was a cast member of the Marty Feldman sketch show It's Marty, which was written by Barry Took, with contributions by John Cleese, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, members of Monty Python as well as John Junkin, who appeared with Spinetti in A Hard Day's Night. In 1969 and 1970, Spinetti appeared on Thames Television, alongside Sid James, as one half of Two in Clover over two series. A sitcom about two office workers who jack it all in to become farmers, he starred in all but one of the 13 episodes. His absence in episode No. 3 of the…