Spinning Victor Spinetti

Born of a September 2, Italian-Welsh comic actor Victor Spinetti (1929-2012).

Spinetti’s paternal grandfather immigrated to Wales from Italy to work in the coal mines. His parents ran a chip shop, and were able to send him to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Spinetti worked subsistence jobs throughout the ’50s, while acting with small theatre companies. His association with Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop was what finally brought him notice. In 1963 he appeared in her film Sparrows Can’t Sing, and the play with music Oh, What a Lovely War!, which moved to Broadway the following year, earning Spinetti a Tony award. His absence from the 1969 screen version seems particularly unfortunate given the scale and nature of his stardom throughout the ’60s, though it seems likely that the selfsame success kept him too busy that year to participate.

What had happened in between? Spinetti played the crucial part of the frantic, nervous television director in The Beatles movie A Hard Days Night (1964). His hilarious turn is one of the most memorable things about the movie. He’s basically the principal foil to the Fab Four — what an enviable role! This led to appearances in Help! (1965) and Magical Mystery Tour (1967). What a shame that the Joe Orton script that was written for the Beatles Up Against It never got filmed, for the swishy, openly gay Spinetti might have chewed the scenery to bits in a script like that. In 1968 he co-adapted John Lennon’s humor book In His Own Write for the stage, and directed the West End production. That same year he joined John Junkin (Shake from A Hard Day’s Night) and several future Monty Python cast members on Marty Feldman’s sketch comedy show It’s Marty. Later, Spinetti would appear in the video for Paul McCartney’s 1978 single “London Town”. His brother, Henry Spinetti, a professional session drummer, played on solo records by McCartney and George Harrison, as well as related acts like Bob Dylan, Gerry Rafferty, Cliff Richard, Eric Clapton, and former members of The Who.

Outside the Beatleverse, Spinetti’s film career was both eclectic and prolific. He had roles in Becket (1964), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?(1969), Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), Under Milk Wood (1972), Digby, The Biggest Dog in the World (1973), The Little Prince (1974), The Great McGonagall (1975),The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), Voyage of the Damned (1976), Casanova & Co. (1977), Prince’s Under the Cherry Moon (1986), The Krays (1990), and many other films. He voiced the lead in the animated film Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done (1975) — a pity he wasn’t hired for the Beatles Saturday morning cartoon show or the 1968 feature Yellow Submarine!

Spinetti also co-starred with Sid James on the BBC sit-com Two in Clover (1972-73), among lots of other tv work. He kept a hand in the theatre as well, directing international productions of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar in the late ’60s and early ’70 (he would play Herod in a 1992 revival), while continuing to act in roles classical and modern. It was Spinetti who played Felix in the 1966-67 West End premiere of The Odd Couple opposite Jack Klugman as Oscar — two years prior to the sit-com adaptation!

Spinetti’s last screen credits were in the mid-oughts. He died of cancer at age 82.