Died February 11, 2000
Director with an eye for the ladies. Born in Paris, France, Vadim is probably best known not as a film director (his profession) but for his relationships with beautiful women, including Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Catherine Deneuve and Annette Stroyberg, his second wife. He directed And God Created Woman (1956) with Bardot and Barbarella (1967), starring Fonda. Vadim began his life of love when he was 16 after a girl took pity on him. Her name was Françoise; she was four years older than Vadim and a fellow aspiring actor. One day in a Normandy hayloft after a meal of rabbit, and when their friends were asleep, Françoise crept over to Vadim and relieved him of his virginity. As they coupled the walls began to shake and the ceiling vibrated alarmingly. Vadim had heard about the earth moving but this was too much. He was convinced it was the wrath of God and he was being punished for his sin. There was a slightly more prosaic reason for the noise. The date was June 6, 1944: D-Day. The day the Allies began the invasion of France. As Vadim said, “I have always had a sense of history.”
CAUSE: Vadim died aged 72 in Paris after a long struggle with cancer.
FURTHER READING: Memoirs Of The Devil – Roger Vadim (London: Arrow Books, 1978); Bardot, Deneuve And Fonda: The Memoirs Of Roger Vadim – Roger Vadim (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986).
Rudolph Valentino
(RODOLFO ALFONZO RAFAELO FILIBERT GUGLIELMI DI VALENTINO D ’ANTONGUOLLA)
Born May 8, 1895
Died August 23, 1926
‘The Great Lover’. Valentino was the first real sex symbol to be created by the cinema. Millions of women lusted after him, smaller numbers of men envied him or were jealous of him and sometimes the jealousy provoked them to violence. In the twenty-first century, most intelligent, sophisticated people are aware that the image portrayed in public by film and television personalities bears little or no resemblance to their true identity in private, where promiscuity, sexual deviancy, drug taking and boorish behaviour is often the norm. In the 1920s no such sophistication existed among the vast majority of the cinema-going audience. Whereas today’s cognoscenti take press releases with a pinch of salt, in the more innocent days of the early twentieth century, an eager public lapped up every word. Such an atmosphere allowed Rudolph Valentino to flourish, and flourish he did in a career that lasted just seven years. Born in Castellaneta, Italy, a town of 6,000 people, the son of a vet, the young Valentino was a troublesome boy who was, occasionally, locked out of his home by his mother. He responded by throwing bricks at the front door. He was also jailed for vagrancy. A trip to Paris saw him lose his virginity to a man called Claude Rambeau when he was 18. On December 9, 1913, he set off for America aboard the liner Cleveland, his fare paid for by his mother out of her meagre widow’s stipend, to seek fame and fortune. Arriving in New York two days before Christmas, he worked as a gardener earning $6 a week working for millionaire Cornelius Bliss before being sacked for spending too much time admiring Bliss’ fine lady and gentleman guests and not enough tending to the herbaceous borders. He landed another job gardening in Central Park but was again sacked and ended up homeless. After contemplating suicide on August 4, 1914, he became a 10¢-a-dance gigolo but would spend more time in his clients’ beds than in their arms on a dance floor. He joined the high-class nightclub Maxim’s and was soon taking home $70 a week. Despite his burgeoning wealth, it never occurred to Rudolph to send for his mother. At Maxim’s Valentino began an affair with the wealthy but ignored socialite Bianca de Saulles (b. Valparíso, Chile, as Bianca Erraruiz). In Paris in December 1911 she was married to former star American football player Jack de Saulles. Valentino and Bianca’s affair lasted a year and created a number of problems at work where Valentino refused to sleep with the other ladies who wanted his favours. Bianca suggested he become a professional dancer. He teamed up with brunette divorcée Bonnie Glass (née Helen Roche from Roxbury, Massachusetts) who paid him $50 a week to be her partner. They played at the Winter Gardens and Glass opened her own cabaret club, Chez Fisher on West 55th Street, paying Valentino $100 a week. Then she fell in love with Ben Ali Hagin, a multi-millionaire, closed her club and retired, leaving Valentino unemployed. Not for long. His dancing talent soon earned him a job on tour paying $150 a week. He disliked his new dancing partner, Joan Sawyer, and Bianca disliked her husband so the two contrived to set up de Saulles with Sawyer so that Bianca could have proof of her husband’s adultery, the only possible grounds for divorce at the time. When Sawyer learned of Valentino’s connivance she sacked him, but on September 15, 1916, Jack and Bianca de Saulles were divorced. Valentino was unable to celebrate with Bianca because ten days earlier he had been arrested by the vice squad at the New York home of Georgia Thym at 909 Seventh Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets during an investigation into blackmail and white slave trafficking. Valentino protested his innocence (he had been framed by Jack de Saulles) but still spent three days in New York’s Tombs prison. He was charged on the day Bianca won her divorce but charges were later dropped. Today there is a file on Valentino in NYPD headquarters but it is empty as is Georgia Thym’s. A cynical mind would believe that when Valentino achieved fame, someone organised for the files to be mislaid. Valentino was still wary of Jack de Saulles’ power and he stopped seeing Bianca. He took lowly paid work dancing at cinemas before a film and was advised to go to Hollywood and dance in films. On August 3, 1917, his mind was made up for him when Jack de Saulles was shot and killed by Bianca. Fearing that he would be caught up in the scandal and deported, Valentino took the advice of John Babsone Soule (not Horace Greeley) and went west. After a number of jobs as a male prostitute, he made his first film, ironically entitled Alimony (1917), for which he was paid $5 a day. His second film was also aptly titled: A Society Sensation (1918). He appeared in a few more films and began to get noticed around Hollywood although not by the non-trade press. On November 2, 1919, he met actress Jean Acker and three days later they were married at the home of Joseph Engle, Metro Films’ treasurer on Hollywood Boulevard and Mariposa Hollywood. Six hours later, the marriage was over after she locked him out of her room at the Hollywood Hotel, 6811 Hollywood Boulevard, telling him she never loved him and that it had all been a terrible mistake. On December 6, newspapers carried the story of their separation. Valentino remained one of Hollywood’s less famous stars; at the time of his divorce one newspaper referred to him as “Rudolph Balentino”. He took to wearing a corset and explained the scar on his right cheek as the result of a duel (which he, of course, won). In fact, it was the consequence of messing around with his father’s razor when Rudy was five. He became a star as a result of his appearance as Julio Desnoyers in The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (1921). By this time he had met Natacha Rambova (her real name was the more prosaic Winifred Shaughnessy and she was born on January 19, 1897, dying on June 5, 1966, from dietary complications), in late 1920 on the set of the film Unchartered Seas (1921) in which he played Frank Underwood. Rambova was the costumier and she was not impressed by her first impressions of Valentino. Rambova’s mentor and lesbian lover Alla Nazimova unsubtly invited Valentino to take Rambova as his date for the Los Angeles opening of his film The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (1921). Despite that inauspicious start, they met again. Both were interested in the supernatural and believed they had known each other in a previous life. This was one of their main topics of conversation on their ‘dates’, the first of which was during Christmas week 1920. Rambova insisted that ‘true love’ was spiritual rather than physical and Valentino, with his complete lack of interest in hetero sex, was more than happy to go along with that. They became engaged in May 1922. On the thirteenth of that month Valentino, now 27, married Rambova in Mexicali, Mexico, in Mayor Otto Moller’s house. His Worship had arranged for a military band to play a Spanish wedding march. The wedding night passed, as had Valentino’s first, with no passion displayed by either bride or groom. The couple intended to honeymoon for a month in Palm Springs and San Diego but two days later a judge pointed out that
Valentino hadn’t waited for the statutory year to elapse after his interlocutory divorce decree. He was arrested for bigamy as the couple pulled up to their Whitley Heights home eight days later. He spent several hours in prison before the $10,000 bond money could be raised. Eventually, on June 5, 1922, the judge declared the Mexican match invalid but warned the couple not to remarry until the divorce was finalised. Back in Hollywood they organised the city’s first séances. She insisted he refer to her as ‘Boss’. They married legally in Crown Point, Indiana, on March 14, 1923, when she took over running every aspect of his career – badly. As well as being a lesbian, Rambova had some rather strange quirks: she believed she was a psychic and a spiritualist. She also travelled everywhere with a monkey. When the couple was divorced on January 19, 1926, she admitted the marriage had never been consummated. Valentino’s star continued to soar with his films The Sheik (1921) and Blood And Sand (1922) as Juan Gallardo. Under Rambova’s influence Valentino’s image became less masculine and his demeanour off screen more surly. On September 14, 1922, Famous Players-Lasky took out an injunction to stop the temperamental star from working for another studio. While working on The Young Rajah (1922) as Amos Judd, Valentino came to the conclusion that the film was poor and that the scripts he was being offered were worse. He went to see studio boss Jesse Lasky to demand a raise, a better dressing room and better films. Requests denied. On August 30, Valentino announced to the press that he intended to seek a better deal elsewhere. At the resultant court case the judge found in favour of the studio and when it went to appeal on December 8, the appellant judge confirmed the findings of the lower court. The star was told to see out his contract with Famous Players-Lasky or not appear in public until February 1, 1924. Just as his career seemed back on track with The Eagle (1925) as Vladimir Dubrovsky and The Son Of The Sheik (1926) as Ahmed/The Sheik, the Chicago Tribune ran a story in July 1926 headlined “Pink Powder Puff” and calling Valentino “that painted pansy”. He responded by challenging the journalist to a fight. A quick scrap followed with 6́ 1˝ boxing correspondent Frank O’Neil taking the place of the journalist who had originally penned the insults. O’Neil pronounced 5́ 11˝ Valentino to have “a punch like the kick of a mule”. Back in New York on August 16, 1926, Valentino collapsed and was hospitalised.
CAUSE: Valentino died in Polyclinic Hospital, New York, at 12.10pm on August 23, 1926, as a result of “a perforated gastric ulcer and inflamed appendix with resultant peritonitis”. He was just 31 and newspapers eulogised about the death of a man at the height of his powers who had just been reunited with his one true love, Pola Negri. In reality, Valentino’s star was fading and he left an estate sinking in around half a million dollars of debt. Following his death, several women, including Peggy Scott in London, committed suicide as did one man. Valentino’s corpse was taken to Frank Campbell’s Funeral Church on Broadway at 66th Street where thousands queued to pay their last respects. As with all sudden deaths, rumours abounded that Valentino had been murdered – shot or poisoned by a jealous rival – or that it was a wax dummy and not a human corpse that was on display. United Artists decided to make the most of Valentino in death, so arranged for a mass at the Roman Catholic St Malachy’s Church and Actors Chapel at 239 West 49th Street. However, there was a slight problem – Valentino’s two marriages. This was overcome by a declaration from Rome, no doubt aided by ‘persuasion’ from Hollywood, that since both Valentino’s weddings had been civil affairs (in a manner of speaking), neither counted in the eyes of the Church and he was entitled to a Catholic service. On August 30, the service took place and shopkeepers on 49th Street sold vantage points from their premises to view the cortege. In attendance were Douglas Fairbanks, George Jessel, Marilyn Miller and Gloria Swanson. Crowds cheered as each star arrived! Pola Negri repeatedly fainted, usually in full view of the press. Following the Mass, Valentino was taken back to Frank Campbell’s where he remained on view for 48 more hours. Special dispensation was given by NYC’s Department of Health to allow the body to stay above ground for so long. This was allegedly to let Valentino’s brother, Alberto Guglielmi, arrive from Italy to pay his respects. When this occurred the whole circus began again as Valentino was loaded onto a train for the five-day journey to Hollywood. There, on September 7, another star-studded Mass took place, this time at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Beverly Hills. Then, over a fortnight after his death, Valentino was finally laid to rest in Crypt 1205 off Corridor A of the Cathedral Mausoleum of Hollywood Memorial Park, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, California 90038. At the second funeral Pola Negri fainted yet again, only for a photographer to call out, “Pola, the light’s not good on your face – will you do it again?” So she did. Said a stunned Joseph Hergesheimer: “It’s the only time I ever saw a retake on mourning.” As one wag would say of the death of Elvis Presley, also nearly broke when he died, Valentino’s demise was a great career move. Crowds queued to see his films and the $500,000 deficit soon turned into a credit of $600,000.
FURTHER READING: Valentino – Irving Shulman (London: Leslie Frewin, 1968); Valentino – Brad Steiger & Chaw Mank (New York: Manor Books, 1975); Valentino: The Love God – Noel Botham & Peter Donnelly (London: Everest, 1976); Rudolph Valentino – Alexander Walker (London: Sphere, 1977).
Rudy Vallee
(HUBERT Prior VALLEE)
Born July 28, 1901
Died July 3, 1986
‘The Vagabond Lover’. Born in Island Point, Vermont, Vallee never intended a career in showbiz and it was assumed he would follow his father into the pharmacy business. One day he heard someone playing a saxophone and fell in love with the instrument. That led to the formation of his own band, nightclub appearances, a wireless spot and eventually films, where his method of ‘crooning’ a song rather than belting it out proved immensely popular. He went on to become a character actor. His films included: The Vagabond Lover (1929), George White’s Scandals (1934), Gold Diggers In Paris (1934), Second Fiddle (1939), The Fabulous Suzanne (1946), The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer (1947), The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend (1949), The Helen Morgan Story (1947) and Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). A tad vain, he tried to persuade the local council to rename the street on which he lived as Rue de Vallee. He was married four times: wife number one was Leonie Cauchois whom he married in 1928 and received an annulment from the same year. The marriage was never consummated. On July 6, 1931, he married Fay Webb. They divorced on May 20, 1936. On December 2, 1943, he married actress Jane Greer but they divorced, on July 27, 1944, after just eight months. On September 4, 1949, he married Eleanor Kathleen Norris. During the reception the bride’s veil caught fire. Vallee grabbed the material and beat out the flames with his bare hands. They were still together when he died.
CAUSE: Vallee died from a heart attack in his Hollywood home shortly before his 85th birthday.
Lee Van Cleef
Born January 9, 1925
Died December 14, 1989
‘ … The Bad …’. It was perhaps fitting that one of Lee Van Cleef’s best-known films labels him as the kind of character he was best at playing. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, he joined the navy and then became an accountant before turning to acting. He made his film début in High Noon (1952) as gunman Jack Colby. His squinty-eyed expression made him a natural movie bad guy and he appeared in, among others, Untamed Frontier (1952) as Dave Chittun, Kansas City Confidential (1952) as Tony Romano, White Lightning (1953) as Brutus, Jack Slade (1953) as Toby Mackay, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953) as Corporal Stone, Arena (1953) as Smitty, Vice Squad (1953) as Pete, The Yellow Tomahawk (1954) as Fireknife, Gypsy Colt (1954) as Hank, Rails Into Laramie (1954) as Ace Winton, I Cover The Underworld (1955) as Flash Logan, Ten Wanted Men (1955) as Al Drucker, Tribute To A Bad Man as Fat Jones, Accused Of Murder (1956) as Sergeant Emmett Lackey, The Conqueror (1956) as Chepei, Joe Dakota (1957) as Adam Grant, Gunfight At The O.K. Corral as Ed Bailey, The Bravados as Alfonso Parral, Guns, Girls, And Gangsters (1959) as Mike Be
nnett, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) as Reese and How The West Was Won (1962) as Marty before becoming a star in spaghetti Westerns such as Per Qualche Dollaro In Più/For A Few Dollars More (1965) as bounty hunter Colonel Douglas Mortimer and Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo/The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1967) as Angel Eyes Setenza. Van Cleef wasn’t keen to fly to Spain to play Mortimer but he was nearly broke and the job paid $17,000, a third more than anything else he had earned. He was also recovering from a knee injury and a drink problem. These films were followed by others of the same ilk: La Resa Dei Conti/The Big Gundown (1966) as Jonathan Corbett, I Giorni Dell’Ira/Day Of Anger (1967) as Frank Talby, Al Di Là Della Legge (1967) as Cudlip, Da Uomo A Uomo/Death Rides A Horse (1968) as Ryan and Ehi Amico … C’è Sabata, Hai Chiuso! (1970) as Sabata.
CAUSE: Lee Van Cleef died in Oxnard, California, from a heart attack. He was 64.
Jo Van Fleet
Born December 30, 1914
Died June 10, 1996
Terminal matriarch. Born in Oakland, California, it seemed she was destined never to play anyone her own age. She made her stage début in Washington, DC in 1944 at 29 playing a much older character, the spinster Miss Phipps in Uncle Harry, and this continued into films. She won an Oscar for playing James Dean’s brothel-owning mother, Kate Trask, in East Of Eden (1955) even though she was 16 years his senior and she was Susan Hayward’s mother in I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955) even though she was just three years older than Hayward! She was a ‘Method’ actress and appeared in a dozen films. She was married to William Bales who died in 1990.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 174
