Background
Rizzello was born in London of Italian parents. His father was a tailor. He attended the London Oratory School and did not want to follow his father"s profession.
Rizzello was born in London of Italian parents. His father was a tailor. He attended the London Oratory School and did not want to follow his father"s profession.
He was a good baritone singer and had to choose between music and drawing. He chose the latter. He attended the Royal College of Art winning both the Drawing Prize and Travelling Scholarship in Sculpture.
He enlisted in the army in 1944, and was demobbed in 1948. He began his career making wax heads for Madame Tussauds. He served an unprecedented term of two 5-year periods as President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.
His public statuary includes Dancer with Ribbon in Oxford Street, London (the Plaza, the old Bourne & Hollingsworth).
His David Lloyd George stands in Cathays Park, Cardiff, and other portrait busts include Nelson Mandela. He was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the 1977 Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours list.
He died in London, England. A posthumous exhibition of his work was shown in the Mall Galleries in April 2005.
They had one daughter, who survived them.