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Nickname:	Rudolph Valentino / Rodolph Valentino / Rudolph Valentine / The Sheik
Known for:	The Son of the Sheik, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Eagle
Birth name:	Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaelo Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla
Birthday:	6 May 1895, Castellaneta, Italy
Height:	5' 10" (1.78 m)

Ranked #80 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] In 1923 he recorded two songs for Brunswick Records, you can actually hear his heavly accented voice 73 years later. A portion of Irving Boulevard in Hollywood, California, was renamed Rudolph Valentino Street in 1978. Considered to be the first male sex symbol of the cinema during the silent era. Published a thin volume of sentimental poetry titled "Day Dreams" in 1923. The book sold hundreds of thousands of copies. For many years on the anniversary of Valentino's death, a mysterious woman, dressed all in black, was seen laying a wreath of flowers on his grave. Her identity was never established. Following his untimely death, a bogus, composite photograph of Valentino ascending up to heaven was released for sale, and was snatched up by his legion of fans. After Valentino's death, his family announced that his body would lie in an open casket in order to be seen by his fans. However, the family was worried that grief-stricken fans might rush the casket and damage the body, so they had a sculptor fashion a lifelike wax dummy of Valentino, and that was the "body" exhibited in the casket. Valentino's real body was kept in a hidden room in the funeral home. He was half French and half Italian Pictured on one of ten 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating stars of the silent screen, issued 27 April 1994. Designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, this set of stamps also honored Clara Bow, Charles Chaplin, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Harold Lloyd, Theda Bara, Buster Keaton, and the Keystone Kops. Valentino and Jean Acker had one of the shortest celebrity marriages on record - six hours. After courting for just a few days, they impulsively married November 5 1919, but Jean locked him out of their hotel room later that night after a spat. They separated, and their divorce was finalized in 1922. Ironically, after their divorce, they became good friends. At the time of his death, Valentino was severely in debt, and his heirs could not afford a burial plot for him. June Mathis, screenwriter of Rudy's hit films The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Blood and Sand, graciously agreed to temporarily loan him a space in her family crypt at Hollywood Park Cemetery so he could be interred upon his body's arrival in Los Angeles following a coast-to-coast funeral train ride from New York. Valentino's body remains in that "borrowed" crypt, interestingly placed between Ms. Mathis and her last husband, to this day. A few months before Valentino's death, a Chicago newspaper columnist attacked his masculinity in print, referring to him as a "pink powder puff." A lawsuit was pending when Valentino was fatally stricken. One of his last questions to his doctor was, "Well, doctor, and do I now act like a 'pink powder puff'?" His doctor reportedly replied, "No, sir. You have been very brave. Braver than most." At the height of his popularity, Valentino went on a brief sojurn in his native Italy to visit friends and family and, in general, to get a much-needed rest. When he returned to Hollywood, friends asked him if he'd been mobbed by fans while on vacation. Valentino said no, explaining that, "over there, I look like every other Italian fellow on the street." He is responsible for bringing the Argentine Tango to America, first performing the famous dance in his film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and later in a successful American national dance tour with his wife, Natacha Rambova, who, like Valentine himself, was once a professional dancer. He was voted the 32nd Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Worked as a dishwasher, gigolo, and petty thief before starring in The Son of the Sheik in 1926. Is mentioned in the The Bangles hit song "Manic Monday". Had an Irish Wolfhound named "Centaur Pendragon" and a Great Dane named 'Kabar'. Was paired with Nita Naldi in four movies: Blood and Sand, A Sainted Devil, The Hooded Falcon and Cobra. Uncle of sound engineer Jean G. Valentino. In 1930s, "Sheik" condoms, named after his most famous role, were introduced and feature Valentino's silhouette on the packaging for years.

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