Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino , of its true name Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piero Filiberto Guglielmi di Valentina d' Antoguolla , was a Acteur Italy N, born the May 6th 1895 with Castellaneta, in the Province of Tarente, in the Pouilles (Apulie, Italy), dead the August 23rd 1926 with New York (the United States).

Origin

It was born the same year as the invention from the Cinéma in an easy family (his/her father was a former officer and a veterinary surgeon).

His/her mother, Marie Berthe Gabrielle Barbin, French, was born the May 7th 1856 with Lure in Haute-Saône; she is the girl of Philibert Barbin (1819) and of Anne Marie Pink Willien (1824).

His/her father, Giovanni Faithful Antonio Giuseppe Guglielmi, is Italy N.

Youth

Although equipped with a wild imagination, there remains student indifferent to the course, not very interested by the routine of the schooling and defying even its professors. This behavior seems to be caused partly by the death of his/her father when Valentino was only eleven years old. At fifteen years, it tries to fit in a military academy, but is not accepted because of a physical problem (its pulmonary volume was too small). Thereafter he studies and becomes graduate of agronomic Science with Nervi (close to Genoa). He spends time then to Paris, where he becomes an endowed dancer, and returns to Italy during one moment, where its apparent lack of ambition irritates its family.

Years in New York

In 1913 it leaves for the the United States, according to the council of its friend Domenico Savino and the tenor of opera Tito Schipa. It unloads with New York, the Christmas Day 1913. After having exhausted its small savings, he knows the poverty during which he survives thanks to various odd jobs as conveyer or gardener. Thereafter it finds a work as a dancer (initially like rider then as instructor, and later as professional dancer) and obtains a certain local fame, in particular for its interpretation of the Argentinian Tango. One said of him, without it being never proven, that for this period, it was also a Gigolo and that it had had troubles with justice on this subject (it was questioned like material witness the shortly after a searching in a closed house, but really accused forever).

Years in Hollywood

It joined a company of operetta which stops in Utah, from there it reaches San Francisco, where it meets the actor Norman Kerry, who convinces it to try a career in the cinema. After small roles in a dozen films, he marries in 1919, Jean Acker, a starlet of the cinema which was also a Lesbienne. This marriage was unhappy: it is told that Acker locked up Valentino with key apart from their hotel room at the time of their wedding night, and in spite of the efforts of reconciliation of Valentino, they will separate shortly after. They divorce in 1922.

Valentino meets thereafter June Mathis which had been impressed by its role of " parasite of cabaret" in the film eyes of youth (The Eyes off Youth) . It suggests with the director Rex Ingram that he is taken as first masculine role in his next film the Four Riders of the Apocalypse . This film, distributed in 1921 is a triumph and Valentino becomes the first star Latin of the American cinema. The same year, he interprets the role of the sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan in the Sheik of George Melford. Always in 1921, it divides the poster with Alla Nazimova in the lady with the camellia .

The May 13rd 1922, with Mexicali with the Mexico, Valentino Marie with the artist Natacha Rambova. He is then shown of Bigamie because its divorce with Acker was not finished yet (the law of California requiring a one year waiting after a divorce before remarier). They are thus remarient a year afterwards.

With bloody Arenas (Blood and Sand) , diffused in 1922, with the actress Nita Naldi, Valentino settles like principal the star male of the moment. The impact of the seducer is colossal on the public. Its magnetism and its erotism fascinate the women… and poke the jealousy of the men in his connection. However, in 1923 a conflict with the Paramount has like consequence an injunction prohibiting Valentino from making films with other producers. To make sure that its name remains in top of the poster, Valentino, according to the suggestion of its director George Ullman, launches out in a national round of dance, financed by a company of beauty products called Mineralava, with Rambova (a former ballerina) as a partner. He also travels in Europe and knows a memorable visit in his town of origin. Of return to the United States, he is criticized by his fans for his beard and is forced to shave it.

In 1925, Valentino negotiates an new agreement with United Artists which included a clause preventing its wife from entering on the plates (it was largely thought that its presence had created the disasters of the preceding productions such as Mr Beaucaire). It separates from Rambova shortly after. During the procedure of separation, Natacha dares to express doubts on the virility of her husband. Its declarations tarnish the image of the star somewhat. After its separation, Valentino has a connection with the Polish actress Pola Negri. At this time, it makes two of its most succeeded films, the black eagle (The Eagle) (based on a history of Alexandre Pouchkine) and the son of the Sheik , a continuation of the film the Sheik turned with the popular actress of Hungarian origin Vilma Bánky.

Then in round to promote the son of the Sheik , Valentino, which appears more and more made up in its films, is attacked in a leading article of the Chicago Tribune in which one shows it to feminize the image of the American male. Furious, Valentino answers by defying the indicter with a match of boxing which remains unanswered. A little later Valentino meets in a dinner the journalist H.L. Mencken so that he advises it for these public relations. Mencken will write later that it had found Valentino gentleman and will publish an eulogistic article in the magazine Photoplay a few months after the death of Valentino.

Disease and dead

The August 23rd 1926, Rudolph Valentino dies at the 31 years age to New York because of a Septicémie occurred after an surgical operation for an acute gastric ulcer. It had crumbled on a pavement of Manhattan.

Odd rumors on the conditions of its death circulated, one thought of a poisoning with aluminum after having eaten, illegal drugs, or a wound with the stomach inflicted by a jealous husband.

Approximately 100.000 people gathered in the streets of New York to accompany its skin at the time its burial, managed by the Frank Campbell Funeral Home. The event will be a drama itself: windows will be broken by fans trying to attend the ceremony, Campbell will rent four actors to form a fascistic guard of honor (it will be claimed that Benito Mussolini had sent it, does it of them was only one advertizing operation).

Its imposing funeral in New York is celebrated with the St Malachy' S Roman Catholic Church , often called " The Actor' S Chapel " because it is located on West 49th Street in the zone of Broadway and is often used by the figures of the show American businesses. The actress Pola Negri crumbles hysterical beside the coffin. It was even said that several women, completely despaired, commit suicide by learning its death. The popular rumor which tells that was exposed a wax effigy of Valentino rather than its real body to protect it from fanatics is probably without base.

After the body was convoyed by Railroad through the the United States, a second burial takes place on the West coast, with the Catholic Church off the Good Shepherd , and its remainders are buried with the cemetery of Hollywood Forever Cemetery in California.

Its studio continued to receive mail of fans during every Thirty, and, of the rumors ran that Valentino had not died and had simulated its disappearance to escape the pressures from stardom, just like Elvis Presley much later.

The American author John Dos Passos describes youth, the career, the death and the burial of Valentino in a chapter called " the dancer of Adagio " in its novel The Big Money .

Reputation

It keeps the legendary image of the sex-symbol androgyne. It has its star on Hollywood Boulevard.

During several years, on each date birthday of her death, a mysterious woman equipped very with black came to flower her tomb. Its forever firmly proven identity. Still nowadays, much of fans (some equipped like sheiks or ladies in black) carry out an annual pilgrimage the day of its death towards its crypt located at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

In 2004, Beyond the Rock'n'rolls , a film of Valentino with Gloria Swanson and which was regarded as lost, was redécouvert in a collection deprived with the Netherlands. It has been diffused for the first time for 80 years with the Cannes festival in May 2005.

Catalog of films

Valentino is also supposed to have played at beginning of its career in following films:

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

Other names under which it was known:

Rudolph DeValentino | Mr. De Valentina | Mr. Rodolfo De Valentina | Mr. Rodolpho De Valentina | R. De Valentina | Rodolfo di Valentina | Rudolpho De Valentina | Rudolpho di Valentina | Rudolpho Valentina | Rodolph Valentine | Rudolpho Of Valentine | Rudolph Valentine | Rodolfo di Valentini | Rodolph Valentino | Rudi Valentino | Rudolfo Valentino | Rudolf Valentino | Rudolph Volantino.

References

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