Valentino, Rudolph

Valentino, Rudolph (1895–1926), silent‐era motion picture star.Born in Italy, the son of an army veterinarian, Rudolph Valentino emigrated to New York in 1913 to find work. After a series of odd jobs, he became a taxi dancer and then an exhibition dancer in New York City. Moving to Hollywood in 1917, he landed small roles in several films. His big break came in 1921, when screenwriter June Mathis insisted that he play the lead in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, about a South American playboy who becomes a hero in France during World War I. A huge hit, the film catapulted Valentino to stardom and established his status as Hollywood's first male sex symbol. Before Valentino, popular male stars like Douglas Fairbanks were more action‐ than romance‐oriented. But with his lithe body, dark features, and passionate gaze, Valentino had a more explicitly sexual charisma.

In 1921, he consolidated his popularity with The Sheik, playing an Arab chieftain who abducts an English lady only to reveal his true identity as a British aristocrat. Between 1921 and 1926 he starred in more than a dozen films, the best known of which are Blood and Sand (1922), Monsieur Beaucaire (1924), and The Eagle (1925). His movies typically featured torrid romances, weak narratives, exotic locales, and elaborate costumes that appealed to female viewers while angering male critics, who considered him effeminate. Promoted as “every woman's dream,” Valentino provided the inspiration for several “Latin lovers” in Hollywood. He died at the age of 31, soon after his hospitalization for a perforated ulcer. His sudden death prompted an outpouring of grief from his fans. He remains an enduring Hollywood legend.
See also Popular Culture; Twenties, The.

Bibliography

Alexander Walker , Rudolph Valentino, 1976.

Cynthia Lee Felando