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Rudolph Valentino (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926) was an Italian actor.

Nicknamed "The Great Lover", he was the first true male movie sex symbol.

Childhood and youth

He was born Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piero Filiberto Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antoguolla in Castellaneta, Italy, to a middle-class family - the same year (1895) as the invention of the cinema. His mother, Marie Berthe Gabrielle Barbin (1856–1919), was French, and his father, Giovanni Antonio Giuseppe Fidele Guglielmi (?-1906), a veterinarian, was Italian. He had an older brother, Alberto (1892–1981), a younger sister Maria and an older sister Beatrice who died in infancy.

Education

Although imaginative and well-read, he was an indifferent student, balking at classroom routine and defying his teachers. His troubled behaviour may have been caused in part by the death of his father when Valentino was eleven.

At fifteen, he tried to enroll in a military academy, but was not accepted because he did not meet the physical requirements (his chest circumference was one inch too small). Eventually he studied and qualified in Agricultural Science at Nervi in Genoa.

After graduating he spent time in Paris, where he learnt to dance, before returning to Italy, where his perceived lack of ambition angered his family.

New York

In 1913 he left for the United States, following the advice of his friend Domenico Savino. He arrived in New York City on Christmas Day, 1913. After exhausting a small family legacy, he endured a spell of poverty during which he supported himself with odd jobs such as bussing tables in restaurants, and gardening.

Eventually he found work as a taxi dancer and instructor, and later as an exhibition dancer. He gained attention for his rendition of the Argentine tango.

Hollywood and first marriage

Valentino joined an operetta company that traveled to Utah where it disbanded. From there he traveled to San Francisco, where he met the actor Norman Kerry, who convinced him to try a career in cinema, still in the silent movie era.

In 1919, after small parts in a dozen films (in which he typically played "heavies" and gangsters), he married Jean Acker, a part-Cherokee film starlet (who was later revealed to be a lesbian). Their marriage was rumored to have never been consummated - Acker reportedly locked him out of their hotel room on their wedding night - and despite Valentino's efforts at a reconciliation, the two separated shortly afterward, and were divorced in 1922.

The Sheik

Valentino met screenwriter June Mathis who had been impressed by his role as a "cabaret parasite" in The Eyes of Youth. She suggested to the director Rex Ingram that Valentino be cast as one of the male leads in his next film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Released in 1921, the film was a commercial and critical success, and made Valentino a star. It also led to his iconic role in The Sheik.

Second marriage

Valentino first met Natacha Rambova (a costume designer and art director who was a protégé and possibly the lover of actress Alla Nazimova), on the set of Uncharted Seas in 1921. The two also worked together on the Nazimova production of Camille, by which time they were romantically involved. They married on May 13, 1922, in Mexicali, Mexico. This resulted in Valentino being jailed for bigamy, since his divorce from Acker was not finalized; California law at the time required that divorcing couples wait a full year before remarrying. Valentino and Rambova remarried a year later.

Blood and Sand, released in 1922, and co-starring Lila Lee and the popular silent screen vamp Nita Naldi, further established Valentino as the leading male star of his time. However, in 1923, a dispute with Paramount Pictures resulted in an injunction which prohibited Valentino from making films with other producers. To ensure that his name remained in the public eye, Valentino, following the suggestion of his manager George Ullman, embarked on a national dance tour, sponsored by a cosmetics company, Mineralava, with Rambova, a former ballerina, as his partner.

During this time he also traveled to Europe and had a memorable visit to his native town. Back in the United States, he was criticized by his fans for his newly cultivated beard and was forced to shave it off.

In New York City on May 14, 1923, he made his first and last record, consisting of "Valentino's renditions" of Amy Woodforde-Finden's Kashmiri Song featured in The Sheik and Jose Padilla's "El Relicario," used in Blood and Sand.

United Artists

In 1925, Valentino was able to negotiate a new contract with United Artists which included the stipulation that his wife not be allowed on any of his movie sets (it was perceived that her presence had delayed earlier productions such as Monsieur Beaucaire). He separated from Rambova shortly afterwards and had an affair with the Polish actress, Pola Negri.

During this time he made two of his most critically acclaimed and successful films, The Eagle, based on a story by Alexander Pushkin, and The Son of the Sheik, a sequel to The Sheik, both co-starring the popular Hungarian-born actress, Vilma Bánky (with whom he had a brief relationship prior to his involvement with Negri).

Chicago Tribune

In July of 1926, Valentino was attacked in an anonymous editorial published by The Chicago Tribune in which the author, incensed by a powder dispenser he had seen in a men's public washroom, blamed him for the supposed feminization of the American male. Furious, Valentino responded with a challenge to a boxing match that went unanswered. Shortly afterwards, Valentino met for dinner with the famed journalist H.L. Mencken for advice on how best to deal with the public slur. Mencken later professed that he found Valentino to be likable and gentlemanly and wrote sympathetically of him in an article published in Photoplay some months after Valentino's death.

Death

On August 15, 1926, Valentino collapsed at the Hotel Ambassador in New York City. He was hospitalised at the Polyclinic in New York and underwent surgery for a perforated ulcer. The surgery went well and he seemed to be recovering when peritonitis set in and spread throughout his body. He died eight days later, at the age of 31.

Funeral

An estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of New York City to pay their respects at his funeral, handled by the Frank Campbell Funeral Home. The event was a drama itself: windows were smashed as fans tried to get in and Campbell's hired four actors to impersonate a Fascist honor guard, which claimed to have been sent by Benito Mussolini, but which later turned out to have been a publicity stunt.

His funeral Mass in New York was celebrated at Saint Malachy's Roman Catholic Church, often called "The Actor's Chapel," as it is located on West 49th Street in the Broadway theater district, and has a long association with show business figures. Actress Pola Negri collapsed in hysterics while hovering over the coffin.

After the body was taken by train across the country, a second funeral was held on the West Coast, at the Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd, and his remains were interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

Trivia

  • Valentino's reputation still stands as a legendary sex symbol of androgynous appeal.
  • To this day many fans, some dressed as sheiks, flappers or women in black, make an annual pilgrimage on the day of Valentino's death to his crypt at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
  • For several years, on the anniversary of his death, a woman dressed in black was seen laying flowers on his grave. Some believe that she was Pola Negri or Ditra Flamé (who claimed Valentino had boarded with her family during his early days in New York). Her identity, however, has never been firmly established.
  • An animal lover and owner of several dogs and horses, Valentino had an Irish Wolfhound named 'Centaur Pendragon' and a Great Dane named 'Kabar.'
  • The American author John Dos Passos describes Valentino's youth, career, death and funeral in a chapter called "The Adagio Dancer" in his novel The Big Money.
  • Valentino's name become associated with a scandal following Blanca de Saulles' shooting of her husband Jack de Saulles who was having an on again, off again affair de coeur with Joan Sawyer, Valentino's dancing partner. Valentino was not in any way involved with the shooting itself, but earlier, when Blanca de Saulles was seeking a divorce from her husband, Valentino had agreed to provide proof in court that Joan Sawyer was having an adulterous relationship with Jack de Saulles. Valentino may have been in love with Blanca de Saulles, but there is no evidence that she returned his feelings or that they ever had a relationship. It is believed by some that, in retaliation, Jacques de Saulles arranged for Valentino to be arrested at a brothel a few blocks from where he was staying. Although Blanca de Saulles was eventually acquitted, Valentino was embarrassed by the publicity surrounding the case (it was even made into a movie called Woman and the Law) and left New York City. Some years later, when Valentino returned to New York, he tried to contact Blanca de Saulles, but she refused to see or talk to him.
  • Valentino was paired with actress Nita Naldi in four films: 1922's Blood and Sand, 1924's A Sainted Devil and The Hooded Falcon, and 1925's Cobra.
  • Valentino's nephew Jean Valentino (1914-1996), of whom he was very fond, grew up to become a successful Hollywood sound engineer, working on both movies and television programs such as The Twilight Zone, Petticoat Junction and Quincy. He won an Emmy in 1971.
  • "Sheik" brand condoms, introduced onto the market in the 1930's, were named after Valentino's most famous role and for years featured Valentino's silhouette on the packaging.
  • He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and, in 1994, he was honored with his image on a United States postage stamp designed by the noted caricaturist of more than 70 years, Al Hirschfeld.
  • In 2004 Beyond the Rocks a Valentino film co-starring Gloria Swanson and believed to have been lost, was rediscovered in a private collection in the Netherlands. It was screened for the first time in over 80 years at the Cannes film festival in May 2005.

Pop Culture References

  • Ian Thomas makes reference to Valentino in his song "Right Before My Eyes".
  • Long Black Veil is partly inspired by the mysterious veiled woman who regularly visited his grave.
  • The Bangles mention Valentino in their pop hit "Manic Monday", written by Prince.
  • Queen makes reference to Valentino in their song "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy.
  • Wild Strawberries mention Valentino in their 1993 hit "Life Sized Marilyn Monroe."
  • Valentino is one of several celebrities referred to in The Kinks's "Celluloid Heroes."

Upcoming Biopic

There are rumors that Warner Brothers plans to film a biopic of Valentino's career, his marriages, and his battles with the press. Called Rudolph, it has been mentioned that several actors like Jude Law, Colin Farrell, and Jake Gyllenhaal are lobbying for the role.

Rumors

  • Algonquin Round Table writer Robert Benchley was said to have wound up with Valentino's top hat as he assisted the stricken Valentino into an ambulance.
  • Court documents are said to exist from his time in New York City indicating that he was held as a material witness in the aftermath of a raid on a brothel but was released afterwards and never charged with any crime.
  • There is no evidence that he was ever a "petty thief" nor a gigolo as is sometimes claimed in some reference works.
  • There were rumors that he had died from: aluminium poisoning after eating food prepared in aluminum cookware, illegal medicine taken to treat his receding hairline, or a gunshot wound to the stomach inflicted by a jealous husband.
  • There was an urban legend that in the funeral home they displayed a wax effigy of Valentino rather than the actual body itself to protect it from frenzied mourners.
  • Over the years several women have claimed to have borne children fathered by Valentino, but none of these claims have ever been verified. The best-known of these women was Marion Benda (not to be confused with the Marion Benda who married Zeppo Marx), a Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl who dated Valentino shortly before his death. She maintained that she and Valentino were the parents of two children, but was later diagnosed as being delusional.
  • There are rumors that Valentino was bisexual or homosexual (and that he entered into a lavender marriage with both Acker and Rambova), but evidence is lacking that would either confirm or disprove them.
  • His studio continued to receive fan mail well into the 1930s, and, presaging similar rumors about the American rock and roll legend Elvis Presley, there was even talk that Valentino was not dead at all but had faked his demise to escape the pressures of stardom.

Quotations

"Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams."

Filmography

Valentino was also supposed to have acted, at the beginning of his career, in the following films:

  • The Battle of the Sexes (1914)
  • My Official Wife (1914)
  • Seventeen (1916)
  • The Foolish Virgin (1914)

Other names by which he was known:

  • Rudolph DeValentino
  • M. De Valentina
  • M. Rodolfo De Valentina
  • M. Rodolpho De Valentina
  • R. De Valentina
  • Rodolfo di Valentina
  • Rudolpho De Valentina
  • Rudolpho di Valentina
  • Rudolpho Valentina
  • Rodolph Valentine
  • Rudolpho De Valentine
  • Rudolph Valentine
  • Rodolfo di Valentini
  • Rodolph Valentino
  • Rudi Valentino
  • Rudolfo Valentino
  • Rudolf Valentino
  • Rudolph Volantino

Further reading

  • Emily Leider (2003), Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino, (ISBN 0374282390).
  • Jeanine Basinger (1999), chapter on Valentino in Silent Stars, (ISBN 0819564516).

See also

External links

Selected coverage in the New York Times

  • New York Times; July 21, 1926. Rudolph Valentino arrived here yesterday from Chicago indignant at an editorial which appeared in The Chicago Tribune Sunday, entitled "Pink Powder Puffs," and vowing to return there next Monday or Tuesday to whip the man who wrote it.
  • New York Times; August 16, 1926. Rudolph Valentino, noted screen star, collapsed suddenly yesterday in his apartment at the Hotel Ambassador. Several hours later he underwent operations for a gastric ulcer and appendicitis.
  • New York Times; August 21, 1926. Rudolph Valentino, screen star, who is recovering at the Polyclinic Hospital from operations for appendicitis and gastric ulcer, felt so much better yesterday that he asked to be taken to his hotel. His request was promptly vetoed by the attending physicians, who told the patient that he would not be allowed to sit up in bed for several days.
  • New York Times; August 22, 1926. Rudolph Valentino, motion picture actor, who underwent a double operation for acute appendicitis and gastric ulcers at the Polyclinic Hospital last Sunday, took a turn for the worse yesterday. His surgeons found that he had developed pleurisy in the left chest. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon the patient's temperature rose to 104.2.
  • New York Times; August 23, 1926. The condition of Rudolph Valentino, motion picture actor, grew more critical yesterday, and the three doctors who have been attending him at the Polyclinic Hospital since he underwent a double operation for acute appendicitis and gastric ulcers called in a fourth.
  • New York Times; August 24, 1926. Rudolph Valentino, motion picture actor, died at 12:10, yesterday afternoon, at the Polyclinic Hospital where he had undergone a double operation for acute appendicitis and gastric ulcers on Aug. 15. He was thirty-one. His youthfulness and rugged constitution aided him in making a valiant fight even after his five doctors had given up hope.
  • New York Times; August 27, 1926. The public was barred yesterday from the bier of Rudolph Valentine, motion picture actor, because of the irreverence of the thousands who had filed past the coffin in the Campbell Funeral Church, Broadway and Sixty-sixth Street, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
  • New York Times; September 4, 1926. A letter from Dr. Harold E. Meeker, the surgeon who operated on and attended Rudolph Valentino during the illness preceding his death, to S. George Ullman, the dead actor's friend and manager, describing in technical detail the steps of diagnosis, operation and treatment, was made public last night by Dr. Sterling C. Wyman of 556 Crown Street, Brooklyn, Pola Negri's physician.
  • New York Times; September 9, 1926. Los Angeles, California; September 8, 1926. Rudolph Valentino's will, disposing of property which may amount to more than $1,000,000, became public tonight, in advance of being offered for probate here tomorrow. The instrument provided a great surprise, evento lifetime confidants of the dead moving picture star, in that it shared the actor's estate in equal thirds among his brother, Alberto Guglielmi of Rome, who is ...
  • New York Times; September 10, 1926. Los Angeles, California; September 9, 1926. A contest over the "surprise" will of Rudolph Valentino was being considered tonight, it was admitted by Milton Cohen, Los Angeles attorney, who declared that he had been retained to represent Alberto and Maria Guglielmi, brother and sister of the screen star.

1895 births | 1926 deaths | Entertainers who died in their 30s | Silent film actors | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Italian actors | Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Rudolph Valentino | Rudolph Valentino | Rodolfo Valentino | Rudolph Valentino | Rudolph Valentino | Rodolfo Valentino | רודולף ולנטינו | ルドルフ・ヴァレンティノ | Rodolfo Valentino | Rudolf Valentino | Rodolfo Valentino | Rudolfu Valintinu | Rudolph Valentino

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Rudolph Valentino".

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