30 Facts About Victor Spinetti

Vittorio Giorgio Andre "Victor" Spinetti was a Welsh actor, author, poet and raconteur.

At age 70+, Victor Spinetti 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.

Victor Spinetti was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011 and died of the disease in June 2012.

Vittorio Giorgio Andre Victor Spinetti was born on 2 September 1929 in Cwm, 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.

Victor Spinetti recalled singing in London pubs in the 50s, and working as a paint sprayer to afford his rent.

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

Victor Spinetti gained international fame during the 1960s due to his association with the Beatles.

Victor Spinetti appeared on the Beatles' 1967 Christmas recording, released to members of their fan club.

Victor Spinetti made a small appearance in the promotional video for McCartney's song "London Town" from the 1978 album of the same name.

Victor Spinetti appeared in the West End in The Odd Couple ; 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.

Victor Spinetti launched his own one-man show of witty reminiscences, A Very Private Diary, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

One of Victor 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.

Victor Spinetti appeared on Broadway in The Hostage and The Philanthropist, and 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.

Victor Spinetti co-authored In His Own Write, the play adapted from a book by John Lennon with the Beatle which he directed at the National Theatre, premiering on 18 June 1968, at the Old Vic.

Victor Spinetti directed Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair, including productions staged in Europe.

In 1999, Victor Spinetti played in a Jim Davidson Adult Pantomime of Babes in the Wood plays as Friar Tuck who had been taking weed.

Victor Spinetti had been told by The Sheriff of Nottingham to kill his niece and nephew, who were escaped convicts.

In September 2008, Victor Spinetti reprised his one-man show, A Very Private Diary, touring the UK, as A Very Private Diary.

From 1968 to 1969, Victor 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 Victor Spinetti in A Hard Day's Night.

In 1969 and 1970, Victor Spinetti appeared on Thames Television, alongside Sid James, as one half of Two in Clover over two series.

Victor Spinetti starred in the 1999 DVD film Boobs in the Wood with Jim Davidson.

Victor Spinetti lived in Brighton with his partner of 44 years, Graham Curnow.

Curnow became seriously ill towards the end of his life, and Victor Spinetti sold most of his Beatles memorabilia to ensure Curnow was comfortable.

Victor Spinetti had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in February 2011, after he collapsed onstage on Valentine's Day.

Victor Spinetti suffered a spinal fracture and discovered only by chance that he had a tumour.

Victor Spinetti was at first treated in London, but after being cared for by his sister and brother-in-law, he moved to the Velindre Cancer Centre in Whitchurch for radiotherapy treatment.

Victor Spinetti died from the disease at Monnow Vale Integrated Health and Social Care Facility in Monmouth on the morning of 19 June 2012.

Victor Spinetti was another of my great friends from that era.

Victor Spinetti was such a good actor because he took notice of people and used their characters.

Preston FM scheduled a tribute broadcast, for 22 June, of a previously unaired in-depth interview with Victor Spinetti, recorded when he visited Blackpool in July 2010, in Paul and Lucy Breeze's Best Kept Secrets in Conversation.