Actors - Rudolph Valentino

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	Actors - Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino (Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina) (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 Apulia, Italy, to a middle-class family in the same year as the invention of cinema. His mother, Marie Berthe Gabrielle Barbin, was French and his father, Giovanni Antonio Giuseppe Fidele Guglielmi, was Italian. He had an older brother, Alberto, and a younger sister, Maria.

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. He spent some time in Paris, where he learned dancing, and then returned 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 Domenico Savino, a friend of his. He landed in New York City on Christmas Day, 1913. After using up a small legacy he endured a spell of poverty during which he supported himself with odd jobs such as bussing 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 and disbanded there. 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. After small parts in a dozen films (in which he typically played a "heavy" such as a gangster), in 1919 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 locked Valentino out of their hotel room on their wedding night, and despite Valentino's efforts at a reconciliation, the two separated shortly afterwards. They 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 he be cast as a male lead in his next film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
. The film, released in 1921, was a commercial and critical success, made Valentino a star and 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 lover) of 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, as 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 the 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.

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