Sicilian born actor/writer/director was very popular with European audiences, but largely unknown to the west apart from his portrayal of the villainous SPECTRE agent "Emilio Largo" in the spectacular James Bond film _Thunderball _. He passed away on February 19th 1986 from a heart attack.
Despite speaking fluent English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German in addition to his native Italian, his voice was dubbed by another actor in most of his movies throughout his career, even in his native Italy, to hide his distinctive Sicillian accent.
Father of director Leonardo Celi and actress Alessandra Celi.
Surname pronounced "chell-lee"(not "silly").
