Leon Vitali, 'Eyes Wide Shut' Actor and Longtime Stanley Kubrick Collaborator, Dead at 74

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty

Leon Vitali, who forfeited his acting career to become directorStanley Kubrick’s trusted assistant and collaborator for 30 years, has died. He was 74.

His family toldthe Associated Pressthat Vitali died Friday in Los Angeles.

Vitali is also credited with convincing the late R. Lee Ermey, then an off-screen military advisor, to take the role of drill sergeant inFull Metal Jacket, and Vitali even played several extras inEyes Wide Shut’s iconic cult scene.

Colleagues including actors Vincent D’Onofrio andMatthew Modine, who starred inFull Metal Jacket, were among many who acknowledged Vitali’s impact on and off the screen on social media.

“He was one of the most authentic human beings I’ve ever met,” D’Onofrio wrote onTwitter. “I was 24 yrs old when I met him. He taught me that you can not go through life only self serving. That you must give to others always. He taught me the best practical ways to prep for work. And he was a sweet sweet man.”

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“There are people we meet who have a profound impact upon our lives. Leon Vitali was one such person in mine,” Modine wrote. “An artist in every aspect of his life. A loving father & friend to so many. A kind, generous & forgiving nature. He exemplified & personified grace.”

Vitali first worked with Kubrick as an actor on the 1975 movieBarry Lyndon.

Cast as Lord Bullingdon, the stepson ofRyan O’Neal’s title character, Vitali was just getting to know the director when he asked him to talk one day. Vitali previously toldRolling Stonehe thought he was getting fired, but instead the director called him out for being “extremely focused.” The encounter set into motion a career-long partnership. (Kubrick died in March 1999 at the age of 70.)

“I made one truly, truly radical change in my life and that was when I said, ‘I’m more interested in that’ than I was in the acting,” Vitali told the AP in 2017. “That’s the biggest conscious decision I’ve ever made. There were some sacrifices, but there were gains too.”

source: people.com