Vitali was born Alfred Leon in 1948 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, and went on to attend London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Vitali guest-starred in a number of TV series in the early 1970s, appearing in Softly, Softly, Follyfoot, Roads to Freedom, Z Cars, Public Eye, The Fenn Street Gang, series 1, and Notorious Woman among others. In 1973, he made his feature film debut in two movies: the Italian Super Bitch, directed by Massimo Dallamano, who had previously worked with Sergio Leone as a Cinematographer in the first two of his Dollars Trilogy, and the television film Catholics, next to Martin Sheen and Michael Gambon.