50 Fun Facts About Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino was born in 1895 in Castellaneta, in which country?

The town in Apulia unveiled a ceramic statue of him in 1961 and opened a film school in his name.

What was Valentino's real surname?

Studios thought it too hard for Americans to pronounce, spell or remember; he added 'di Valentina d'Antonguolla' himself.

Valentino's father, a former cavalry captain, ran what kind of practice in Castellaneta?

He also did bacteriology research and died of malaria when Rudolph was ten.

Valentino earned a degree from an institute in Liguria in which subject?

On arriving in New York in 1913 he told immigration officials he was an 'agriculturalist' and hinted at descent from a marquis.

Aboard which ship did the 18-year-old Valentino sail from Genoa to New York in December 1913?

He travelled first class with a $4,000 bank draft, so he never passed through Ellis Island.

Where did a broke Valentino sleep in New York after he could no longer afford a 12-cent hotel room?

He washed under fire hydrants before finding work as a dancer at Maxim's.

Valentino's first steady job in New York was as what?

At Maxim's Restaurant-Cabaret he graduated from 'lounge lizard' to exhibition dancer, partnering Bonnie Glass at $50 a week.

Which Chilean heiress's divorce and murder trial pushed Valentino to leave New York for the West Coast?

He had testified for her; in 1917 she shot her ex-husband dead, and he fled with a musical troupe to avoid another sensational trial.

Which screenwriter spotted Valentino in a bit part in Eyes of Youth and cast him in her next film?

She wrote his breakthrough film and became one of his closest allies; they were later buried side by side.

Which 1921 film made Valentino a star and set off a tango craze?

Directed by Rex Ingram from the Blasco Ibáñez novel, it out-grossed Chaplin's The Kid to top the year's box office.

In his 1921 breakthrough film, Valentino's character Julio dances the tango in a bar in which city?

The film also inspired a fad for gaucho pants; it joined the National Film Registry in 1995.

How much a week did Metro pay Valentino for The Four Horsemen, a figure it refused to raise afterwards?

The studio then stuck him in a bit part in a B-film, Uncharted Seas, and he soon quit for Famous Players-Lasky.

Which Russian-born actress introduced Valentino to her art director, Natacha Rambova?

Nazimova and Rambova then shaped the avant-garde 1921 Camille, in which he played Armand.

Valentino's first wife, Jean Acker, is said to have done what on their wedding night in 1919?

She was the protégée and lover of a famous Russian-born actress; the divorce court sided with Valentino in 1922.

In The Sheik (1921), Valentino played Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan opposite which actress as Lady Diana Mayo?

The film was based on Edith Maude Hull's bestselling 1919 novel; Ayres returned for the 1926 sequel.

What was Valentino's profession in Blood and Sand (1922)?

As Juan Gallardo he was torn between Lila Lee's Carmen and Nita Naldi's seductive Doña Sol; the film was one of 1922's four top grossers.

Valentino's lost 1922 film Beyond the Rocks resurfaced when a print was found in which country in 2002?

Only a one-minute fragment had survived; the Netherlands Film Museum's find was restored and released on DVD in 2006.

Why was Valentino arrested for bigamy after marrying Natacha Rambova in Mexicali in May 1922?

He had only an interlocutory decree; the couple lived apart and remarried legally in Crown Point, Indiana, in March 1923.

Natacha Rambova was born under what name, in Salt Lake City?

A great-granddaughter of Mormon leader Heber C. Kimball, she later became an Egyptologist and died in 1966.

In September 1922 Valentino declared what against Famous Players-Lasky?

He objected to standardised short films and broken promises to shoot Blood and Sand in Spain; the studio sued and blocked him from working elsewhere.

During his studio dispute Valentino toured 88 cities in 1923 promoting which product?

His new manager George Ullman set up the dance tour with Rambova; he judged beauty contests and crowned the winner at Madison Square Garden.

Why were Valentino's only two vocal recordings, made in 1923, unreleased in his lifetime?

'Kashmiri Song' and 'El Relicario' were finally issued after his death by the Celebrity Recording Company.

Which of these titles is one of Valentino's lost films, made for Famous Players in 1924?

It was his final picture for the studio before he was released to Ritz-Carlton Pictures.

Which two United Artists founders privately courted Valentino during the filming of Monsieur Beaucaire?

His UA deal paid $10,000 a week for three films a year but barred Rambova from his sets, wrecking the marriage.

Valentino's UA contract of 1925 was worth how much per week?

It covered only three pictures a year plus a percentage of the profits.

Valentino's 1925 comeback The Eagle was loosely based on a novel by which Russian writer?

He played a disgraced lieutenant turned masked outlaw; clips of the film appear in the video for Queen and Bowie's 'Under Pressure'.

Which Hungarian actress co-starred with Valentino in both The Eagle and The Son of the Sheik?

Rumours of an affair during The Eagle were denied by both; the sequel gave him a dual role as father and son.

In his final film, the 1926 sequel to his desert romance, Valentino played what?

The original Diana returned for the sequel; the film entered the National Film Registry in 2003 and the public domain in 2022.

A 1926 Chicago Tribune editorial that enraged Valentino was prompted by what in a ballroom washroom?

The 'pink powder puff' piece asked why no one had 'quietly drowned' him; he challenged the writer to a boxing or wrestling match.

Which heavyweight champion refereed Valentino's boxing match with a New York sportswriter?

Valentino beat Frank 'Buck' O'Neil on the roof of the Ambassador Hotel; Dempsey called him 'the most virile and masculine of men'.

Valentino collapsed in August 1926 and underwent emergency surgery for what?

Peritonitis and septic endocarditis followed and he died eight days later, aged 31.

How old was Valentino when he died on August 23, 1926?

He asked his doctor after surgery, 'Doctor, am I a Pink Puff?', and was told he had been very brave.

Roughly how many people lined the streets of Manhattan for Valentino's funeral?

Windows were smashed and an all-day riot broke out on August 24 as fans tried to get into the Campbell funeral chapel.

Which actress, claiming to be his fiancée, collapsed in hysterics over Valentino's coffin?

She had installed an 11-foot bank of lilies spelling out her own name at the bier.

The funeral home hired actors to impersonate what at Valentino's lying-in-state?

Reports that the body on display was a decoy were repeatedly denied by the Campbell chapel.

Valentino lies in a crypt at Hollywood Forever Cemetery next to whom?

She lent her own crypt as a temporary measure, died the next year and was buried beside him; he was never moved.

What does the 'Woman in Black' traditionally bring to Valentino's crypt each year?

Ditra Flame claimed to be the original; the legend helped inspire the song 'Long Black Veil'.

Valentino's Beverly Hills home was called what?

It failed to attract bidders at his estate auction and was later owned by heiress Doris Duke, who died there in 1993.

Which ballet star played Valentino in Ken Russell's 1977 biopic?

Anthony Dexter had played him in the 1951 film Valentino, and Gene Wilder spoofed him the same year in The World's Greatest Lover.

Valentino's first wife Jean Acker later wrote a song in his memory called what?

It and Vernon Dalhart's 'There's a New Star in Heaven Tonight' were both bestsellers after his death.

Valentino received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in which year?

The estate had grown from about $300,000 at his death to about $1 million under manager George Ullman's administration.

In 1925 Valentino gave out his only 'medal' for acting to which star, for Beau Brummel?

The same year he formed Rudolph Valentino Productions to gain the location shooting he craved.

Whose former dance partner did Valentino replace when Bonnie Glass hired him in December 1914?

Glass paid him $50 a week, less than he made as a taxi dancer, but he saw exhibition dancing as a step up.

Before which US president did Valentino and partner Joan Sawyer dance in Washington, D.C.?

He recalled the performance with pride and was earning $240 a week by then.

Which Al Jolson touring production carried Valentino to Los Angeles in 1917?

He had joined an operetta company that disbanded in Utah and briefly thought about becoming a California farmer.

What role did Valentino play in The Married Virgin, his first substantial part?

He reportedly spoke only Italian on set, and it was the first time he was billed under the name Valentino.

Where does The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rank among the highest-grossing silent films ever?

It was one of the first films to take $1,000,000 at the box office.

Under what title does Valentino appear in John Dos Passos's novel The Big Money?

His sex-symbol status and early death form one of the biographical sketches in the U.S.A. trilogy.

What was the title of the book of poetry Valentino published in 1923?

That year he also wrote 'How You Can Keep Fit' for Liberty and serialised 'My Life Story' in Photoplay.

Why did Italian authorities reject Valentino's offer to enlist during World War I?

The condition never affected his acting; he later tried to join the British aid service as well.