For those of us who are obsessed with the life and work of Stanley Kubrick, there's always been one person in the world who held the job we all, at some point, wished that WE had... Leon Vitali, right-hand man to the Maestro, himself.
But that's not all he was. In his seven-plus decades on this planet, Leon managed to squeeze in a lot of living. He was a teen heart-throb on British TV (and in those colorful magazines aimed at teen girls). He then managed to parlay that into a career as a serious actor, including in two films by the greatest director in film history, a man who so fascinated Leon that he set out to become that man's most indispensable assistant... and succeeded!
He was also a dad (twice over), and as a measure of how vital he was to the Kubrickean oeuvre, he continued to do good work for the man years after Kubrick passed away, helping put together retrospectives, documentaries, and an incredible international traveling roadshow, for which he put in countless hours of work and quality control, allegedly all without any reimbursement. Loyalty on this level is a rare thing, indeed, and the fact that it wasn't reciprocated by those who raked in significant profits thanks to his work should be forever shamed by their sickening avarice.
In any case, I have personally been buoyed to find that Leon's passing has been given significant coverage by the mainstream media. And so, after getting some of the lesser known bits out, above, I feel as though there's really no reason for me to write yet another piece with all the same information as you can find pretty much anywhere online now. So go read one of those (like this one from People.com) and spare a thought for Leon Vitali, the man who helped Stanley Kubrick make the kind of movies he most wanted to make.
In any case, I have personally been buoyed to find that Leon's passing has been given significant coverage by the mainstream media. And so, after getting some of the lesser known bits out, above, I feel as though there's really no reason for me to write yet another piece with all the same information as you can find pretty much anywhere online now. So go read one of those (like this one from People.com) and spare a thought for Leon Vitali, the man who helped Stanley Kubrick make the kind of movies he most wanted to make.
