30 Facts About Mario Lanza

Mario Lanza was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s.

Mario Lanza made three more films before dying of an apparent pulmonary embolism at the age of 38.

Author Eleonora Kimmel concludes that Mario Lanza "blazed like a meteor whose light lasts a brief moment in time".

Mario Lanza made the first of his few appearances in opera as Fenton in Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Berkshire Music Festival in Tanglewood on August 7,1942, after a period of study with conductors Boris Goldovsky and Leonard Bernstein.

Mario Lanza's aspiring operatic career was interrupted in World War II when he was assigned to Special Services in the US Army Air Corps.

Mario Lanza appeared in the wartime shows On the Beam and Winged Victory.

Mario Lanza appeared in the film version of the latter.

Mario Lanza resumed his singing career with a concert in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in September 1945 under Peter Herman Adler, who subsequently became his mentor.

Mario Lanza studied with Enrico Rosati for 15 months and then embarked on an 86-concert tour of the United States, Canada, and Mexico from July 1947 until May 1948 with bass George London and soprano Frances Yeend.

Mario Lanza knows the accent that makes a lyric line reach its audience, and he knows why opera is music drama.

At the time of his death, Mario Lanza was preparing to return to the operatic stage.

The contract required him to commit to the studio for six months of the year, and Mario Lanza initially believed he would be able to combine his film career with his operatic and concert appearances.

Mario Lanza's recording of the aria "Che gelida manina" from that first session was awarded the prize of Operatic Recording of the Year by the National Record Critics Association.

Mario Lanza portrayed Enrico Caruso in The Great Caruso, which was MGM's biggest success of the year.

Mario Lanza was born with one of the dozen or so great tenor voices of the century, with a natural voice placement, an unmistakable and very pleasing timbre, and a nearly infallible musical instinct.

Later in 1952, Mario Lanza was suspended and ultimately fired by MGM after he had recorded the songs for his next film, The Student Prince.

MGM refused to replace Bernhardt, and the film was made starring English actor Edmund Purdom, who lip-synched to Mario Lanza's dubbed singing voice.

Depressed by his dismissal by MGM and with his self-confidence severely undermined, Mario Lanza became a virtual recluse in his home for more than a year, frequently seeking refuge in alcoholic and eating binges.

Additionally, Mario Lanza owed around $250,000 in unpaid taxes to the IRS.

Mario Lanza returned to an active film career in Serenade, released by Warner Bros.

In May 1957, Mario Lanza moved to Rome, Italy where he starred in the film Seven Hills of Rome, and returned to performing live in November of that year, appearing before Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium.

From January to April 1958, Mario Lanza gave a concert tour of the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany.

Mario Lanza gave a total of 22 concerts on this tour, receiving mostly positive reviews for his singing.

In September 1958, Mario Lanza made a number of operatic recordings at the Rome Opera House for the soundtrack of what would turn out to be his final film, For the First Time.

Mario Lanza received offers to sing in any opera of his choosing from the San Carlo in Naples.

Mario Lanza's body was returned to the United States and entombed in the mausoleum at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Mario Lanza was the first RCA Victor Red Seal artist to win a gold disc and the first artist to sell two and a half million albums.

Mario Lanza was a big inspiration to fellow RCA Victor recording star Elvis Presley.

In October 2007, Charles Messina directed the musical Be My Love: The Mario Lanza Story, written by Richard Vetere and produced by Sonny Grosso and Phil Ramone, about Lanza's life.

At the height of his career, Mario Lanza was voted by exhibitors as being among the most popular stars in the country:.