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

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

His family told the Associated Press that Vitali died Friday in Los Angeles.

Vitali's vision and contributions are evident in movies ranging from The Shining to Eyes Wide Shut, say movie industry insiders. Tony Zierra's documentary Filmworker focused on how the British-born Vitali came to work for legendary director Kubrick, and captured how the assistant helped to cast and coach actors, including finding (and babysitting, per Rolling Stone) six-year-old Danny Lloyd who played Danny Torrance, in 1980's The Shining.

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

Colleagues including actors Vincent D'Onofrio and Matthew Modine, who starred in Full 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 on Twitter. "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 movie Barry Lyndon.

Cast as Lord Bullingdon, the stepson of Ryan O'Neal's title character, Vitali was just getting to know the director when he asked him to talk one day. Vitali previously told Rolling Stone he 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."