Actor and singer, and a familiar mid-20th-Century face on the Broadway
stage and in early-television character roles. Le Roi Operti's aquiline
features made him a natural for stereotypical typecasting, and so he
usually appeared in various 'professor', 'scientist' or 'priest' roles.
On occasion he did spoken-word recordings as well. (His surname is
pronounced "oh-PERty".)
His father was painter Frederic Operti, and Le Roi's career spanned 57
years, beginning at the age of 12 as Gottfried in "Lohengrin" at New
York's Park Theatre. The following thirteen years were spent in stock
and touring productions of musical comedy and opera on the East Coast,
and then he did Shakespearean roles with the Walter Hampden repertory
company in New York with roles in "The Merchant of Venice" and
"Hamlet". By 1935 he was working with
Alfred Lunt and
Lynn Fontanne in the
Theatre Guild's production of "The Taming of the Shrew" and they teamed
again a year later in "Idiot's Delight". In 1939 he played Professor
Metz in "The Man Who Came to Dinner". His final role was as the priest
in "Hamlet" at Central Park's Delacorte Theatre.