Rudolph Valentino (1895–1926) was an Italian-born actor in the era of silent films.[1] He emigrated to the United States in 1913 and took a string of temporary menial jobs before becoming a film extra in 1914.[2] He appeared in several films until 1921—many of which are now lost.[3] That year he got his major break when he appeared in the role of Julio in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.[1] According to Valentino's biographer, Noel Botham, the film was "hailed ... [as] a masterpiece and Valentino as a star";[4] the film grossed $4.5 million at the North American box office.[5]
Valentino played leading roles in fourteen films as a romantic figure.[6] When he appeared in The Sheik in 1921, women fainted in the aisles of theaters;[7] the film grossed $1.5 million.[5] His second wife, Natacha Rambova, took increasing control of his career and image, although this meant his screen image turned "increasingly effeminate".[7] The films in which he played a romantic role within the action genre were the more successful at the box office; these included his final two works The Eagle (1925) and The Son of the Sheik (1926).[8] In 1995 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant";[9] a second Valentino film was inducted in 2003 when The Son of the Sheik was selected.[10]
Valentino died suddenly of peritonitis on August 23, 1926, at the age of 31.[11] His death at the height of his fame, and extensive media coverage, turned his funeral into a national event, at which large crowds attended.[1][12] According to his biographer, Carl Rollyson, Valentino had a "... trim body, athletic grace, and dark good looks [which] made him an action hero and a romantic legend—the epitome of the silent screen's Latin lover".[1]
