Biography

Sicilian born actor/writer/director was very popular with European audiences, but largely unknown to the west apart from his portrayal of the villainous SPECTRE agent "Emilio Largo" in the spectacular James Bond film Thunderball (1965). However, due to his heavy accent, Celi's voice was dubbed by Robert Rietty. Two years later Celi popped up in the appalling James Bond spoof Operation Kid Brother (1967) starring Neil Connery brother of Sean Connery.

Additional to his many film appearances in Italian productions, Celi spent many years on stage in South America to very positive reviews, and directed three films made in South America, Caiçara (1950), Tico-Tico no fuba (1952)_ and L'Alibi (1969)_.

He passed away on February 19th 1986 from a heart attack.
- IMDb mini biography by: firehouse44@hotmail.com

Celi began his career at eighteen after graduating from Rome's Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was in two post-war Italian films, then he emigrated to South America in 1948, where, for fourteen years, he was director of the Brazilian Theatre in Sao Paulo. There, he directed and produced over forty theatre productions, three films and numerous TV dramas. For two years, he was the manager and leading director of the Opera House in Rio de Janeiro. Celi had a small part in the film 'That War From Rio' which involved his return to Europe for post-production work. Finding it a changed place, he decided to return to acting in order to learn the European directing technique. Meeting producer Harry Saltzman, he was asked to do a screen test for Thunderball. Having already read the book, he had a good idea of the Largo character and was the instant choice of director Terence Young and the producers. He said of the character 'He has everything, beautiful women, fast cars, high stake gambling, all of which bored him. Only large scale crime fascinates him, which is how he becomes a big man in S.P.E.C.T.R.E.' Later in 1971, he was offered the chance to play a Borgia pope in an Italian film, but he turned it down because he considered it was a worthless script (it turned out to be a blue film). Later, he was considered for Brando's role in 'The Godfather'. Celi spoke Italian, French, Spanish, Portugese and English. He made some 90 films.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5