1. Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella, known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor who starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Sheik.
Rudolph Valentino was born in Castellaneta, Apulia, Italy and named Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella.
Rudolph Valentino's father, Giovanni Antonio Giuseppe Fedele Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella, was an Italian from Martina Franca, Apulia; he was a captain of cavalry in the Italian Army, later a veterinarian, who died of malaria when Valentino was 11.
Rudolph Valentino's mother, Marie Berthe Gabrielle Barbin, was French with Torinese ancestry, born in Lure in the Franche-Comte region.
Rudolph Valentino had an older brother, Alberto, a younger sister, Maria, and an older sister, Beatrice, who had died in infancy.
Rudolph Valentino's mother coddled him, while his father disapproved of him.
Rudolph Valentino did poorly in school and was eventually enrolled in agricultural school in Genoa, where he earned a certificate.
Rudolph Valentino was processed at Ellis Island at age 18 on December 23,1913.
Rudolph Valentino never applied for United States citizenship, and retained his Italian citizenship.
Rudolph Valentino once worked as a bus boy at Murray's on 42nd Street and was well liked, but didn't do a good job and was fired.
Rudolph Valentino eventually befriended Chilean heiress Blanca de Saulles, who was unhappily married to businessman John de Saulles, with whom she had a son.
Whether Blanca and Rudolph Valentino actually had a romantic relationship is unknown, but when the de Saulles divorced, Rudolph Valentino took the stand to support Blanca de Saulles's claims of infidelity on her husband's part.
The evidence was flimsy at best, and after a few days in jail, Rudolph Valentino's bail was lowered from $10,000 to $1,500.
In 1917, Rudolph Valentino joined an operetta company that traveled to Utah, where it disbanded.
Rudolph Valentino then joined an Al Jolson production of Robinson Crusoe, Jr.
Rudolph Valentino continued dancing, teaching dance, and building up a following that included older female clientele who would let him borrow their luxury cars.
At one point after the United States entered World War I, both Kerry and Rudolph Valentino tried to get into the Canadian Air Force to fly and fight in France.
Young would later say it was she and Lewis J Selznick who discovered him, and that they were disappointed when Valentino accepted a lucrative offer at Metro.
Rudolph Valentino appeared as second lead in The Delicious Little Devil with star Mae Murray.
Rudolph Valentino returned for a visit in 1917, staying with friends in Greenwich Village, eventually settling in Bayside, Queens.
Rudolph Valentino cast him in the role of Julio Desnoyers.
On this film, Rudolph Valentino met his second wife, Natacha Rambova.
Rambova, Mathis, Ivano, and Rudolph Valentino began work on the Alla Nazimova film Camille.
Rudolph Valentino was cast in the role of Armand, Nazimova's love interest.
Yearning for Europe, better pay, and more respect, Rudolph Valentino returned and promptly quit Metro.
Rudolph Valentino tried to distance the character from a stereotypical portrayal of an Arab man.
Rudolph Valentino's leading role in Moran of the Lady Letty was of a typical Douglas Fairbanks nature; however, to capitalize on Valentino's bankability, his character was given a Spanish name and ancestry.
In November 1921, Rudolph Valentino starred alongside Gloria Swanson in Beyond the Rocks.
In 1922, Rudolph Valentino began work on another Mathis-penned film, Blood and Sand.
Rudolph Valentino was further irritated by changes in production, including a director of whom he did not approve.
Rudolph Valentino felt he had underperformed in the film, being upset over his separation with Rambova.
Missing Rambova, Rudolph Valentino returned to New York after the release of The Young Rajah.
Rudolph Valentino was upset over the broken promise of filming Blood and Sand in Spain, and the failure to shoot the next proposed film in either Spain or at least New York.
Rudolph Valentino had hoped while filming in Europe he could see his family, whom he had not seen in 10 years.
Rudolph Valentino did not back down, and Famous Players realized how much they stood to lose.
Variety erroneously announced the salary increase as a "new contract" before news of the lawsuit was released, and Rudolph Valentino angrily rejected the offer.
Rudolph Valentino went on to claim that artistic control was more of an issue than the money.
Rudolph Valentino wrote an open letter to Photoplay magazine, titled "Open Letter to the American Public", in which he argued his case, although the average American had trouble sympathizing, as most made $2,000 a year.
Rudolph Valentino filed an appeal, a portion of which was granted.
In late 1922, Rudolph Valentino met George Ullman, who soon became his manager.
Ullman had previously worked with Mineralava Beauty Clay Company, and convinced them that Rudolph Valentino would be perfect as a spokesman with his legions of female fans.
Rudolph Valentino returned to the United States in reply to an offer from Ritz-Carlton Pictures, which included $7,500 a week, creative control, and filming in New York.
Rudolph Valentino accepted, turning down an offer to film an Italian production of Quo Vadis in Italy.
The first film under the new contract was Monsieur Beaucaire, wherein Rudolph Valentino played the lead, the Duke of Chartres.
Rudolph Valentino's next film was a pet project titled The Hooded Falcon.
Rudolph Valentino agreed only on condition that it not be released until after The Hooded Falcon debuted.
The film began shooting in February 1926, with Rudolph Valentino given his choice of director, and pairing him again with Vilma Banky.
Rudolph Valentino was ill during production, but he needed the money to pay his many debts.
Rudolph Valentino hated these stories and was known to carry clippings of the newspaper articles around with him and criticize them.
Mencken advised Rudolph Valentino to "let the dreadful farce roll along to exhaustion", but Rudolph Valentino insisted the editorial was "infamous".
Mencken found Rudolph Valentino to be likable and gentlemanly and wrote sympathetically of him in an article published in The Baltimore Sun a week after Rudolph Valentino's death:.
Rudolph Valentino won the bout, which took place on the roof of New York's Ambassador Hotel.
In 1923, Rudolph Valentino published a book of poetry titled Day Dreams.
Rudolph Valentino followed that with "My Private Diary", serialized in Movie Weekly magazine.
Rudolph Valentino craved authenticity and wished to shoot on location, finally forming his own production company, Rudolph Valentino Productions, in 1925.
On May 14,1923, while in New York City, Rudolph Valentino made his only two vocal recordings for Brunswick Records; "Kashmiri Song" and "El Relicario".
Rudolph Valentino was one of the first in Hollywood to offer an award for artistic accomplishments in films; the Academy Awards later followed suit.
The award, named the Rudolph Valentino Medal, required the agreement of Valentino, two judges, and the votes of 75 critics.
Rudolph Valentino was investigated for a possible violation of the Mann Act.
Many of Rudolph Valentino's friends disliked Rambova and found her controlling.
The end of the marriage was bitter, with Rudolph Valentino bequeathing Rambova one dollar in his will.
For some, the marriages to Acker and Rambova, as well as the relationship with Pola Negri, add to the suspicion that Rudolph Valentino was gay and that these were "lavender marriages".
Some claim that Rudolph Valentino had a relationship with Ramon Novarro, despite Novarro stating they barely knew each other.
Hollywood Babylon recounts a story that Rudolph Valentino had given Novarro an art deco dildo as a gift, which was found stuffed in his throat at the time of his murder.
Shortly before his death, Rudolph Valentino was dating Ziegfeld Follies showgirl Marion Wilson Benda while he was involved in a relationship with actress Pola Negri.
Rudolph Valentino was hospitalized at the New York Polyclinic Hospital.
The media were told that unless Rudolph Valentino's condition deteriorated, no updates would be given.
Rudolph Valentino was stricken with a severe relapse of pleuritis, which developed rapidly in his left lung due to his weakened condition.
The doctors realized that Rudolph Valentino was going to die, but as was common at the time, chose to withhold this information.
Rudolph Valentino died a few hours later at the age of 31.
Polish actress Pola Negri, claiming to be Rudolph Valentino's fiancee, collapsed in hysterics while standing over the coffin, and Campbell hired four actors to impersonate a Fascist Blackshirt honor guard, purportedly sent by Benito Mussolini.
Coincidentally, she died the following year and was interred in the adjoining crypt that she had purchased for herself; Rudolph Valentino was never moved to a new location and he remained in the crypt next to Mathis.
Rudolph Valentino left his estate to his brother, sister, and Rambova's aunt Teresa Werner, who was left the share originally bequeathed to Rambova.
The Museo Rodolfo Rudolph Valentino was opened in his childhood home and a memorial designed by architect Nicola Cantore with a blue ceramic statue of Rudolph Valentino by Luigi Gheno was unveiled in 1961.
Fondazione Rodolfo Rudolph Valentino was created to promote his life and his work.
In 1994, an opera by Dominick Argento entitled The Dream of Rudolph Valentino was premiered by the Washington National Opera in the District of Columbia.
The life of Rudolph Valentino has been filmed several times for television and the big screen.
Rudolph Valentino's delusion is quickly deduced by the main character, who is himself under the delusion that he is Sherlock Holmes.
In 2015, Rudolph Valentino is a supporting character in the fifth season of the horror anthology series American Horror Story.
Rudolph Valentino then turns his fictional lover, Elizabeth Johnson, into a vampire, as well.
Elizabeth goes on to become the Countess, the central antagonist of the show's fifth season, while Rudolph Valentino is eventually killed by Donovan, one of Elizabeth's many lovers, in a jealous rage.
Shortly after his death, several songs in tribute to Rudolph Valentino, including "There's a New Star in Heaven Tonight" and one by his first wife, Jean Acker, titled "We Will Meet at the End of the Trail", became bestsellers.