Biography

Leon Vitali was born on July 26, 1948 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, UK. He was an actor and casting director, known for Barry Lyndon (1975), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Romeo & Juliet (2013). He was married to Sharon Messer and Kersti Vitali. He died on August 19, 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Gave up a successful and highly promising acting career to become Stanley Kubrick's personal assistant in 1977. His remarkable story is told in the documentary Filmworker (2017).

Besides his brief appearance in The Shining (1980), Vitali also served as director Stanley Kubrick's personal assistant on the film. With that experience, his rebuttal of claims made about the movie in the 2012 documentary Room 237 (2012) were featured in a story in The New York Times on 3/27/2013.

Has two kids with ex-wife Kersti Vitali living in Sweden: actress Vera Vitali and director Max Vitali. His eldest daughter from his first marriage is Masha Vitali.

Shares the same birthday as Stanley Kubrick, with Kubrick being 20 years older. He and Kubrick collaborated many times.

Contrary to urban legend, and despite their homages to Stanley Kubrick's cinematic catalog, Vitali never worked on either A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) or Ready Player One (2018).