Leon Vitali, the Barry Lyndon actor who became one of Stanley Kubrick’s closest associates, has died. He was 74.
Vitali died in Los Angeles on Friday, his family told The Associated Press on Sunday. He passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones including his three children, Masha, Max and Vera.
“Leon was a special and lovely man driven by his curiosity, who spread love and warmth wherever he went,” his children said in a statement provided by Masha Vitali.
Photo: AP
“He will be remembered with love and be hugely missed by the many people he touched,” they said.
Although Vitali was often described as Kubrick’s assistant, Tony Zierra’s 2017 documentary Filmworker shed light on Vitali’s enormous and largely unsung contributions to the work of one of cinema’s greatest figures from The Shining through to Eyes Wide Shut.
He did everything from casting and coaching actors to overseeing restorations. Vitali even once set up a video monitor so that Kubrick could keep an eye on his dying cat.
Matthew Modine, who starred in Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, tweeted his condolences on Sunday.
“There are people we meet who have a profound impact upon our lives. Leon Vitali was one such person in mine,” Modine wrote. “An artist in every aspect of his life. A loving father & friend to so many. A kind, generous & forgiving nature. He exemplified & personified grace.”
Before meeting Kubrick, Vitali was a rising actor in England, appearing in several British television shows, including Softly, Softly, Follyfoot, Z Cars and Notorious Woman. Then in 1974 he got his biggest break yet, when he was cast in Barry Lyndon as Lord Bullingdon, the son-in-law of Ryan O’Neal’s title character.
Vitali was so fascinated by Kubrick and his processes that he made an unusual decision: He gave up acting and devoted himself entirely to the famously demanding director for more than two decades.
His next Kubrick credit was as “personal assistant to the director” on The Shining, although that is only part of the story — Vitali famously helped cast four-year-old Danny Lloyd to play Danny Torrance and Louise and Lisa Burns as the creepy Grady twins (citing Diane Arbus as inspiration).
“I made one truly, truly radical change in my life and that was when I said: ‘I’m more interested in that’ than I was in the acting,” Vitali said in 2017. “That’s the biggest conscious decision I’ve ever made. There were some sacrifices, but there were gains too.”
After Kubrick’s death in 1999, Vitali oversaw restorations for many of Kubrick’s films. He received a Cinema Audio Society award for his work.
Vitali later worked with director Todd Field on his films Little Children and In the Bedroom.
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