Ramon Novarro was a matinee idol whose life feels like a Hollywood epic in and of itself. He rose to heights of unbelievable fame, only to watch his career decline and slump before his end.
On October 30, 1968, the man was killed in his own bed, and a secret he had struggled to keep his entire life came out. After “Bloody Wednesday,” the noted Latin Lover's legacy was never the same. Here's his story.
Tragedy began early on in Ramon's life. Born Jose Samaniego on February 6, 1899, in Mexico, he came from a family of well-to-do doctors and dentists. Some even rumored that the family was part of a long-lost Mexican royal bloodline.
He was one of twelve children and they all resided on the giant estate the family owned which was referred to as "The Garden of Eden”. However, they had no idea how aptly the place had been named, given the hostile expulsion that was to soon follow...
It was 1913, Ramon was barely into his teenage years, and the Mexican Revolution began in spectacular fashion. His family was immediately swept up in the chaos of it all.
They were targets right from the start and so the clan had to move around the country constantly while Ramon was young, always having to stay one step ahead of potential violence. Eventually, they got out and fled to Los Angeles, which would bring with it great gifts...and great drawbacks.
Before he became a legal adult, Ramon was already looking to become a sensation. Living in Los Angeles, he became friends with Rex Ingram and his wife Alice Terry, a noted La La Land power couple.
They took one look at the boy and knew that they could make some money out of his adorable, camera-friendly face. That said, if they were going to start promoting him, they wanted him to make a significant change for them...
His new Hollywood besties weren't a fan of his current moniker. His birth name of “Jose Samaniego” was deemed to be a little off-putting to the current movie-going crowd. They wanted him to switch it up for a screen name, and he dutifully obliged.
Even then, things weren't exactly what everyone expected. As the story goes, he liked the name "Navarro" because of his friend Gabriel Navarro. When this was dictated, however, it somehow got copied down incorrectly. He became Ramon Novarro, and it stuck.
The name change wasn't the other bit of strategy that was being employed on Ramon's behalf. Ingram and Terry had taken note of his similarities to then-megastar Rudolph Valentino. He was the current King of Hollywood, with his picture on young womens' bedroom walls across the country.
His managerial cohorts decided they could get some quick traction if they put Ramon forward as a "rival" to the celebrity Latin Lover. These elder stars were doing everything they could to set Novarro up for success. However, there was another side to this...
Whilst Ingram genuinely believed that Novarro was the stuff that stars were made of, he also used him ruthlessly. Rex had worked with Rudolph Valentino in the past but had found him exceedingly difficult to work with. His hope was that Novarro could fill Valentino-esque roles, but that he'd easily be able to control him. To that point, he made Novarro do reading after reading, followed by a grueling series of screen-tests, before giving him a role in his movie The Prisoner of Zenda.
Not only that, but as he promoted Novarro, he forced the young actor to copy everything Valentino did. He had him duplicate his physicality, mannerisms, do his hair in the same way, and more. This connection never get less eerie as time went on, in fact, the spectre of Valentino followed him even after his death...but more on that later.
1923 was the year that Novarro made the big time. His rise to fame was explosive and due in large part to the work of Rex Ingram (no surprise there). Ingram cast him in his soon-to-be blockbuster Scaramouche, opposite Alice Terry.
The film went gangbusters at the box office, making back its budget and then some...and then some more after that. The studio heads were thrilled, and Novarro was now a name in every movie-going household. His most famous role was still ahead of him, however...
As soon as Scaramouche started to light up the world, Novarro was catapulted into his next big picture. He was given the lead role in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, the biblical epic to end all biblical epics. However, there's a little bit of drama as to how his casting came to be.
When he first auditioned, he was overlooked in favor of athlete-actor George Walsh, who got the title role of the Prince. The production turned into a complete logistical fiasco and quickly broke down. The studio, furious, took over the reins and fired Walsh, recasting Novarro in his part. Walsh was bitter about Ramon "stealing" his part for the rest of their lives. Novarro seemed to have no scruples about it.
The release of Ben-Hur saw the picture become an overnight sensation... and an overnight controversy, with Novarro sitting squarely at the center of it all. The problem? He was too sexy (we've all been there, bruh). In the film he played the fashionable and immensely rich Jewish prince Ben-Hur, and, in the role, he was dressed in various shiny, close-fitting, skimpy costumes.
Young girls loved it...which of course upset the right-wing of the country, who generally believed that the human body should be neither seen nor heard. By today's standards, his outfits are considered pretty tame, but at the time, the way he was dressed made him a naughty Hollywood hunk. Behind the scenes, things weren't quite as glamorous, however...
In the film, Novarro was required to do shirtless scenes. Naturally, like any good actor, he got a personal trainer, switched up his diet, and did the work to get his body into shape. However, the producers were still unhappy with what his body looked like for the role.
To that end, they decided to simply... paint his muscles on. That's right, they got the make-up department to draw on a six-pack and accentuate his looks. That wasn't the only thing being cleaned up with film magic...
Novarro was cast opposite Francis Bushman, the actor who played Messala, the villain of the movie. Bushman was 6 feet tall, while Novarro was a mere 5’6″. The filmmakers wanted to make sure that Novarro came off as intimidating acting against Francis, so, in order to fudge things for the camera, they had Bushman stand in a ditch whenever he was in the same scene as Novarro. Movies are so glamorous, aren't they?
However, the biggest cover-up wasn't on the screen at all, it was in real life. Despite being adored by women the country over, Novarro was a gay man. Of course, given the politics of the time, Ramon's sexual identity was kept firmly in the closet. This all in spite of the fact that his love life behind the scenes was very, very active...
Before his international superstardom kicked in, Novarro had started quietly seeing composer Harry Partch. The pair dated into the early 1920s, however, he would soon betray his poor boyfriend.
No one's sure of the exact reasoning, whether he was afraid of being outed in the limelight, or if the love of the nation went to his head, but when he became cemented in the hearts of Americans everywhere, Novarro ditched Partch. That's right, he dropped him like a name at a cocktail party. Cold, dude.
This being the early 20th Century, there was no way a gay leading man was acceptable in Hollywood. However, the fear of public opinion was nothing compared to his own opinion of himself. Ramon had been raised Roman Catholic, and was convinced that his "urges" were "sinful".
It was a, sadly, classic tale of internalized homophobia. He was ashamed of who he was, and there was no one for him to talk to about it. He began to drink to drown his feelings, which rapidly developed into an alcohol problem. He would battle with this addiction for the rest of his life.
Novarro met celebrity journalist Herbert Howe in 1924. He wrote for Photoplay, and he and Novarro hit it off. Their affair was torrid and saw them hiding under the public's nose. Howe wrote often in his column about his “closest friend” Novarro, his code for "lover". It was actually perfect for Novarro's career at the time.
The studio didn't mind him taking male lovers privately, and him dating a gossip journalist made it easy to plant stories about him dating starlets in the press to throw off the crowds. The two spent nearly a decade together, but, alas, it was doomed to end. No one is exactly sure why it all came crashing down, but Howe was certainly not happy about it. In fact, he took to the presses to tell the world what he thought of Ramon, and it was not pretty...
Howe wrote an article about his ex that was nothing short of devastating. In it, Howe accused Novarro of abject cruelty and emotional rigidity. He said that the man was not capable of anything resembling warmth or inner life. In fact, he called him positively vacuous.
His wordplay destroyed Novarro, using language that, even today, feels soul-crushing. The piece-de-resistance was when he said that “Off-screen he is a theater with the lights out.” Naturally, Novarro had a response... and it was pretty drastic.
Licking the twin wounds of his breakup and his various burns in the press from Howe, Novarro decided he needed to escape. And no, not a holiday abroad... he wanted to escape his whole career.
Ever the Catholic, the Latin heartthrob was of the opinion that the only way to cure his depression (and other difficulties) was to go ahead and become a monk. Certainly a switch in vocations! He actually approached a monastery to see if they could take him, however his fame got in the way. They refused to take him on the grounds that they didn't believe a Hollywood star was actually serious about enlightenment.
The mid-'20s saw a lot more than just Novarro's failed relationship. It also saw the end of his "rivalry" with Rudolph Valentino when in 1926, Valentino died suddenly at the age of 31. Whilst an undeniable tragedy, with his competition for roles gone, Ramon started to get every role that might have gone to Rudolph. He was one of the greatest romantic leads of his age. But a fall was coming.
In 1929, Novarro made the decision to become an opera singer - a move that surprised everyone and pleased no one. He trained, and then went to Europe to make his debut... which never happened. No one is sure why. Singing in films also proved to be a non-starter for him, and even his return to supposedly surefire material like The Barbarian (modeled after earlier successes like The Arab) failed him. His career was tanking fast.
As his career spiraled ever downward, so did the quality of Novarro's projects. It was a long way back to Earth. He took a role in Laughing Boy opposite the “Mexican Spitfire” Lupe Velez.
It's already enough to make you feel weird that these are two Mexican actors playing Navajo people (the past was an interesting place to live), but on top of that, critics hated the wig he wore throughout. Not only that, but his face was visibly aging, which back in the day was a death sentence to an actor. Audiences responded similarly and the film was a tremendous financial flop. However, there's always further to fall...
Laughing Boy made Novarro a laughing stock in La La Land. He was old news. Suddenly he found himself in a meeting that would effectively end his career. It was 1935 and Hollywood "fixer" Eddie Mannix took him to one side. He told the star that he was a washout, that the studio didn't like how much money he was costing them, and that they wanted to buy out his contract.
They gave him $19,000 (equivalent to $385,000 today) and told him never to come back. Novarro had no power to refuse. He moved back in with his large family in the mansion he had purchased for them. Many suspect that he had a nervous breakdown at that point, and that he brought his boyfriend to the house with him, outing himself to his family for the first time. Nothing seemed to matter anymore.
Ramon Novarro had always fought his corner, but after the breakdown, a comeback just seemed impossible. He was invited to go to London to perform in a stage adaptation of The Prisoner of Zenda. Crowds there saw that the actor had completely let himself go. His face was bloated, as was his stomach, just barely contained by a tight corset.
His talent was also waning, he had not maintained the instrument that was his voice and body, and as such could no longer project his voice to the back row. He started to get heckled by the cheap seats, who yelled at him to "speak up!" (Who said the British were polite?) One evening he got so upset that he broke character and yelled back, which unendeared him to the crowds even further. Not only that, but his drinking had gotten out of control...
When the '40s and '50s rolled around, Novarro started to get a reputation with the LAPD. He started getting into regular midnight run-ins with the law, as well as several car accidents. In one especially damaging crash the actor cracked several ribs, suffered a chest injury, and, adding insult to injury, had his license taken away.
A lot of this was the result of shacking up with various male sex workers in the '50s. Soon he had a network of men all around LA, and his all-encompassing Catholic guilt let this fuel even more drinking and driving. His mental state was, to put it bluntly, apocalyptic.
Novarro was struggling. In a last-ditch effort to revive his career, he became a client of the famous beauty guru Sylvia of Hollywood. She was the go-to girl for stars who wanted to shed pounds and stay in the limelight. However, he was unprepared for how severe her methods would be. She later confessed that many stars, likely including Novarro, would cry and hide from her rather than do her exercises.
She would later also do him dirty in her ghostwritten memoir Hollywood Undressed, where she spilled his (and other clients') secrets. These included the fact that he slept in a coffin that was a “replica of the burial crypt…in the Vatican.” Ever the good Catholic boy, right? Whilst this fact is at least a little dubious given its source, it's still a compelling image, right?
It was now 1962, and Novarro was back on his beat, driving drunk and picking up male prostitutes. A story (never properly verified, but largely believed to be true) from this time claims that he was reaching a scary version of mental (if not chemical) sobriety at this point. On one arrest he supposedly turned calmly to the police who detained him and said “I am old and I just want to die.” Novarro later denied this, yet it remains on the record.
Not long after, he moved out to the (now infamous) Laurel Canyon region of LA. The remote area is located quite a distance away from other stars and was even lonelier for the man without a driver's license and a career that had burnt out long ago. He was steadily spending his last pennies on male escorts. A bleak existence.
Larry Ortega was one of the "technicians" (contemporary slang for male prostitute) who Novarro favored above others. Novarro would regularly hire him, and pay with checks that read as if they were for "Gardening" or (less subtly) "Massage".
Ortega and other men who worked with him kept Novarro (at least intermittently) happy and safe. Though that would all change in days to come, which would see Ramon murdered in his own bed, his lungs full of his own blood. Like they say, it's not the fall that kills you...
Halloween was about to dawn in 1968, and Ramon Novarro got a call he wasn't expecting. It was a sex worker who said he had gotten Novarro's number from Larry Ortega. He asked if Novarro would like to use his services this evening.
Believing that this was simply his network doing him a favor, Novarro trusted the man and told him to come over. He was a little surprised when two men turned up at his door, but nevertheless, he invited the two of them inside. It was a mistake. The last mistake he would ever make.
The two men on his doorstep were the Ferguson brothers. They consisted of Paul (22 years old) and Tom (17 years old). Paul was a good-looking lad who had hustled before and wasn't afraid to go again.
Allegedly, after he invited the boys in, Novarro told Paul that he had the looks to be an actor. He even went so far as to say that the boy could rival Burt Lancaster's stardom. However, Paul and Tom weren't there for acting tips, or even for a bit of quick hustle money. They were there for a mortal cause...
What happens next is both cut and dry, and something of a mystery. At any rate, the results are infamous. Paul and Tom both gave very different testimonies of what happened. If you believe Paul (whose testimony was admittedly vague), he fell asleep not long after they got to the house. When he woke up from his nap, Tom told him that Ramon was dead. Tom's testimony was far more detailed...and grizzly.
Tom claims that he came into the bedroom to find Paul on top of Novarro, bludgeoning him with a prop cane, demanding that the star fork over the $5000 he reportedly kept in his house at all times. Tom disappeared off to the bathroom, and when he came back, Novarro was dead. It was a sorry incident all around, and Paul and Tom still had more to do. They called him "an old queer" and insisted that he deserved to die.
Having killed the man, the Fergusons then proceeded to try and cover it up. They had to make it look like it wasn't them who did it. They tried to make the scene look like it was perpetrated either by a set of female sex workers or Larry Ortega himself. They placed a condom in Novarro's hand and scribbled Ortega's name in a notepad and on a bedsheet.
After that, in a further attempt to throw people off their scent, they quickly wrote on the mirror (in poor English): “Us girls are better than faggots.” A chilling addition to an already bleak scene. They now believed they were in the clear, but not before they dealt one last indignity to Novarro.
The brothers then ransacked the house, looking for the rumored $5000 that Novarro supposedly kept in his music room. Sadly, this was a complete misunderstanding of the truth. The music room had cost $5000, it did not contain it. Novarros' fortune had long since been spent on booze and boys. They found $20 in his coat pocket, and that was it. Well, and a parting gift of sorts...
According to the court records, before they left, Paul and Tom realized that their clothing was covered in blood. There was no way they could just walk out of the place looking like that. They stole clothes of Novarro's to wear until they got far enough away from the house to dump them safely. Only the coroner had the power to deliver justice to the dead man.
It took a while for the authorities to be alerted. When they eventually did arrive, the deceased star's body was a masterpiece of gore. Bruises covered every inch of his body (every inch), a tooth had been knocked out of his head onto the floor, and blood was everywhere. He was a far cry from the pretty young thing he had once been at the start of his career.
The cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation. Having been savagely beaten, blood had flowed down his throat, clogging his lungs and wind-pipe. He literally choked to death on his own blood. Though there is another rumor about this...
As if the indignity of being murdered by rent boys wasn't enough for Ramon Novarro, later stories that circulated pushed the facts of the case to lewd extremes. It was Hollywood scuttle for years that Novarro hadn't choked to death on his blood at all, and that squeamish cops were just afraid to write down the real cause of death. Which was that he had choked to death on a large sex toy.
Kenneth Anger would later write about the incident in his scandalous work of demi-non-fiction Hollywood Babylon, he added to the story that the Fergusons had shoved an art deco-styled dildo into Novarro's throat. Classy indeed. But that's not all he (almost certainly spuriously) claimed...
Anger added additional salacious details to the story, the most notable being that the fatal phallus had, at one time, belonged to Rudolph Valentino. Valentino had, allegedly, given Novarro the toy as a gift and had it engraved with his initials.
Anger goes on to insinuate that Novarro had a whole shrine to Valentino on display in his house, of which the dildo was the centerpiece. Obviously, this is a little less than truthful. Here's what really happened...
Whilst Hollywood Babylon is a highly fanciful book, Anger is an... interesting man with a fascinating memory (to put it gently), the reality of it all was scandalous enough as it was. Whilst it's safe to say that Novarro was well past his prime and that his fame had waned, there was still some love for him in the world. He still had devoted fans.
However, when the facts of the case started to appear on the public record that faded fast. Novarro had been outed to the world in his passing. His sexuality and the way he had lived his life for the last few decades were an open book, and it wrecked what remained of his public image.
Old Hollywood began its final death rattle with the murder of Ramon Novarro. A few weeks after this incident, the Manson Murders would take place. The free love of the '60s had culminated in a messy collection of scattered, disparate aggressors who saw no value in the past.
Something new was on its way, and the olden days were dying in front of everyone... in this case quite literally. We can at least take solace in the fact that Novarro did get some posthumous justice. While the courts were reluctant to show sympathy to a homosexual who had "brought it on himself", the trial still ended with the brothers Ferguson getting convicted. Despite being sent to prison, it still took Paul decades to fully confess to everything.
Ramon Novarro is a sad story. Particularly if you think of the life he could have led in a more modern Hollywood, where his secret might not have driven him to such ruin. Everything about it has fascinated writers for decades, including such luminaries as Joan Didion and Charles Bukowski.
However, much as his decline and final end were sad and ruinous, we can at least take solace in that the golden age of his work lives on. His performances in classic cinema such as Prisoner of Zenda and Scaramouche are still pieces for the ages. It's hard not to pity the man for the world he was born into, however, instead, we suggest pitying a world whose bigoted attitudes prevented all of us from getting more of this man's work. Goodnight, Ramon.
Up next, the story of Ramon Novarro's original rival...
For six years, Rudolph Valentino was one of the biggest and most handsome names in showbusiness. While he would explore a number of different avenues in the entertainment world prior to arriving in Hollywood, from 1920-1926, the "Latin Lover" was a silver screen star. Unfortunately for the thirty-one-year-old entertainer, his family, and his fans, his career would tragically be cut short.
On his journey to the prime of his career, Valentino would encounter many trials and tribulations, filling his life with sad stories and dark secrets that created one of the most memorable careers in early Hollywood. From questions about his lifestyle choices to how he carried himself professionally, Valentino was one of the first multi-talented sex symbol, movie star, pop icons in American history. So just what brought him up, and what brought him down?
Although fans are familiar with the name Rudolph Valentino, they more than likely won’t recognize the name given to him by his parents, Giovanni and Marie. While he would become a one-name wonder later in his acting career, Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d”Antonguella was born in Castellaneta, Apulia, Kingdom of Italy on May 6th, 1895.
It’s easy to see why studios would want to shorten the heartthrob's name to make it more appealing and easier for fans to recognize. And while he would become an American movie star, Valentino would remain true to his Italian heritage, as he never officially became an American citizen, nor did he officially immigrate to American soil.
All through his childhood, people would comment on Rudolph’s natural good looks and infectious charm, but these qualities came with their own pros and cons.
While his mother would treat him like an angel who could do no wrong, spoiling and coddling him, the relationship with his father would be far different. Not only would Giovanni, who as a former captain in the Italian Army, disapprove of the way that Marie was raising their child, but he often thought of his son as a “sissy,” driving a wedge in the family relationship. Little did he know just how many hearts his son would go on to capture!
While his final years could be defined as tragic, Valentino’s youth would also be filled with unfortunate losses. As the youngest of four children, Rudolph would never have the chance to meet his older sister, Beatrice as she would sadly pass away as an infant.
And Giovanni, who had been so hard on him all his life, would die from malaria when Rudolph was only eleven. After he died, Rudolph, who always struggled with his education, and his older brother were sent away for school. But Rudolph dreamt bigger and was soon seeking his fortune elsewhere.
In 1912 at the age of 17, Rudolph moved to Paris. But this journey would prove fruitless, and he soon returned to Italy. Once there, he found that gaining secure employment was not as easy as he thought. At the age of eighteen, Rudolph would chase his dreams all the way to the United States, landing at Ellis Island on December 23rd, 1913. With fame and fortune on his mind, he stayed in New York City, but his childhood practice of relying on charm to get out of things didn’t help with finding work.
He ended up bussing tables at a midtown establishment called Murray's. As he had never really learned how to work hard, he would soon be fired for simply not doing the job. Luckily for him, though, the staff had a soft spot for him (maybe the charm worked, after all!) and would continue to feed him as he was forced to live on the streets.
Rudolph would soon find a job working for a man named Joe Pani, who owned a number of different dance halls and cabarets. While he was being paid $50 a week to dance the tango and entertain clients, Valentino would take the opportunity to learn the desires and fantasies of females and study various methods of seduction.
As a “taxi dancer,” his "exoticness" helped him appeal to customers. Through his work, Valentino met an unhappily-married Chilean heiress Bianca de Saulles, with whom he struck up a friendship. It's unknown whether the two were romantically involved, but they were close enough that he testified on her behalf at her divorce trial that her husband, John de Saulles, was unfaithful. This testimony, however, would land Valentino in a very precarious predicament.
As a successful real estate broker, John de Saulles was not one to mess with and had many influential business and political ties. He was furious at Valentino for his role in the divorce trial and sought revenge for how he had painted him. Using his connections, de Saulles would have Valentino arrested on "vice" charges with little-to-no evidence. Although Valentino would only spend a few nights behind bars, his reputation would take a large hit and he had trouble finding work in New York after.
But it wouldn't end well for anyone. On August 3rd, 1917, Bianca would engage in a heated argument with her now-ex-husband about the custody of their child and shot him five times. While de Saulles would die in the hospital, Bianca would surrender to authorities and face trial.
Fearing that he would be involved in yet another scandal and trial, Valentino left New York for the West Coast. After taking on various performance roles on the way to San Francisco where he would attempt a career in cinema, Valentino would eventually reach his goal of Los Angeles, becoming a lowly dance instructor as a method of making ends meet. While the job did not pay well, it did provide him the opportunity to become acquainted with a number of wealthy older women.
As a result of these “friendships,” Valentino would find himself with access to their luxury automobiles and various other benefits.
While he would eventually find some financial stability in his life thanks to his dance teaching and performing, Valentino was still in search of trying to make it big as an actor. Thanks to his stunning looks and charm, jobs would be made available to him, just not necessarily the ones that he was looking for.
Because of his “exotic” look, with dark hair, eyes, and complexion, Valentino was the exact opposite of the stereotypical look that producers were seeking for their leading actors, and found himself confined to the roles of villain or gangster. However, it wouldn’t be long until his luck changed and new casting opportunities would be made available.
While his professional career was just about to blow up (in a good way), Valentino would find himself in a toxic relationship. In 1919, Valentino would impulsively marry his first wife, actress Jean Acker.
After the two met at a party, they would date for a few months before making their relationship official, tying the knot on November 6th. Unfortunately for Valentino, Acker already had a love interest - two, to be specific. Acker was involved in a love triangle with fellow actresses Alla Nazimova and Race Darmond. Not only was her wedding to Valentino a sham, but it was never consummated as Acker would lock Valentino out of their room the night of their union.
While en-route to film another movie, Valentino reading Vincente Blasco Ibanez’s bestselling novel, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. After finding out that Metro Studios, a company that he had previously been contracted with, had purchased the rights for the film, Valentino stopped in at their New York office and found out that screenwriter June Mathis had actually been looking for him.
Having seen his previous work, she wanted to cast him to play the role of Julio Desnoyer, one of the leading characters in the film. This was the big break that Valentino was looking for, but while it helped make him a star, it wasn’t as glamourous, or smooth-sailing, as Valentino hoped it would be.
Valentino’s time on the set of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was not as he had envisioned. Having already worked with director Rex Ingram on a previous gig, he was aware that the two did not have a good relationship, and the environment on set soon became fraught and cold.
With little faith in Valentino as an actor due to his lack of experience, Ingram would constantly battle with him over his interpretation. Unfortunately for Valentino, it wasn’t just Ingram who didn’t appreciate his work, as Metro Studio refused to give him a raise, despite the film earning $1 million. Adding insult to injury, they even made him pay for his own wardrobe.
Although The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse would go on to become one of the best silent films of all time, it was clear that Metro Studio wasn't grateful for the work that Valentino put in. Maybe it was because of his relationship with Rex Ingram or maybe it was because Valentino himself had a reputation for being difficult, but the studio decided he wasn't ready to be their star, and so next cast him in a B-movie.
Playing a minimal role in the romantic drama, Uncharted Seas, the only benefit that came of it for Valentino was meeting a woman that would soon become a love interest.
At the time he was filming Uncharted Seas, Valentino was still legally married to his first wife, Jean Acker, even though they never officially consummated their marriage and had yet to file divorce papers. Natacha Rambova, who was the costume designer for the B-movie, and he began a very steamy and intimate relationship while on set and tied the knot in 1922.
But though he and Acker had gone their separate ways, in the eyes of the California court, they had not. Just days after Rudolph and Natacha shared their "I do's", officers would arrest and send Valentino to jail on account of bigamy as according to state law, you had to wait one full year after divorcing before remarrying. After Valentino was released from jail, the couple lived separately for a full year before remarrying in 1923. Considering all of the drama that lied ahead, it may not have been worth the effort.
Since he was a young boy, Valentino was used to getting what he wanted, when he wanted it. When, despite his breakthrough role, his relationship with Metro Studios didn’t pan out as planned, it wouldn’t be long before he would sever ties with the company and join up with Famous Players-Lasky (predecessor to current-day Paramount Pictures), who gave him hope of bigger parts and bigger paydays.
In his first film with the company, Valentino would play the role of Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan in the 1921 movie, The Sheik. Ahead of his time and the studio portrayal of non-White characters, Valentino made efforts to play his role differently than how it was written as a stereotypical "Arab" male. He later said, "People are not savages because they have dark skins. The Arabian civilization is one of the oldest in the world ... the Arabs are dignified and keen-brained."
You know you've made it to the big time when other actors start to imitate your style and attitude. Following the release of The Sheik, numerous men would mirror the slick and styled hairdo, swanky clothes, jewelry, and the way that Valentino carried himself.
Tagged with the nickname “Vaselinos,” these men had hopes that they too would make the ladies swoon over them, just as they were in scores for the actor. However just as there were those who imitated him, there were many more who were questioning the actions of the foreign-born actor and his influence on the traditionally tough and macho appearance.
While Valentino was a lover of all animals, he had a particular fondness for dogs and horses. During many of his films, Valentino would insist on performing any and all stunts or scenes that required horses to be involved.
As for canines, Valentino was gifted an Alsatian Doberman puppy by a fan during his time in France, which he named Kabar, and the two were nearly inseparable. While on road trips, Valentino would not only sit first class with his faithful companion, but they would also sleep in the same hotel room. Valentino eventually be the proud owner of a dozen pedigreed dogs, including an Irish Wolfhound that he named Centaur Pendragon, a couple of police dogs, two German Shepherds, several Great Danes, a Spanish Greyhound, and a Galgo Espanol.
Among the many things that irritated Valentino, one of the biggest was when films decided to shoot on set rather than on location. Despising anything that was not real, Valentino hated shooting movies on the studio lots.
Whenever it was humanly possible, Rudolph would encourage production staff to film his movies on location. While this would of course make everything far more realistic and believable, it also frustrated management and increased filming costs. Of course, should production ask him to step into a sound room for a project, it would lead to Valentino throwing a huge temper tantrum. It's one thing to be a perfectionist, it's another thing to be unrealistic.
Did we mention Valentino’s poor attitude and the fact that he wasn’t the easiest to get along with? The Latin Lover wasn’t the only ladies man who was tough to deal with, but he would soon become irritated with Famous Players-Lasky just as he did with Metro Studios.
With successful films under his belt made with the company, Valentino was frustrated that even though he was making far more money than he ever had, he still felt underpaid. As a means to show his displeasure, he would go on a “one-man strike” against his employer. He even penned an open letter, “Open Letter to the American Public,” in which he complained of broken promises, lack of artistic control, and his unfair weekly salary of $1250, which at that time was more than some Americans made annually.
Valentino didn’t just limit his feud with his employers - he also targeted his social circle. After June Mathis had helped turn him into a star professionally, the two would continue to grow their friendship and business relationship, until Valentino rejected one of her scripts.
Not only was Valentino becoming increasingly difficult to be around and work with, but so too was Natacha Rambova. Seeking input on his contract negotiations, costume designs, and scripts, Rudolph and Natacha requested that Mathis rewrite the script of The Hooded Falcon. Offended by their request, Mathis would sever both personal and professional ties with Valentino for several years.
You know you've made it big when something as simple as growing a beard can turn the entertainment world upside-down and inside-out. In 1925 when cast on The Hooded Falcon, and after three months in France where the crew was being outfitted for costumes, Valentino would return to the United States with a full goatee beard and mustache.
Female fans were in an uproar as to how the actor could cover up his gorgeous face. Although this wasn’t the first time that the actor had a bit of stubble on his face, fans related actors with facial hair to those playing villains, not heroes and sex symbols. As for American male viewers, it seemed as though they were threatened by his effeminate masculinity, leaving many to leave the theaters in disgust while their ladies stayed behind.
Despite being one of the most successful actors and a worldwide sex symbol, Valentino had his own share of insecurities. While ladies everywhere were throwing themselves at him, he was still bothered by the fact that men criticized his "effeminate" brand of masculinity.
It bothered him so much that he began to carry around clippings of newspaper articles that focused on his hairstyle, choice of clothing, his less-than-manly approach, and his treatment of females, and would pull them out and criticize them to anyone who would listen. This would cause a rift between Valentino and numerous journalists, many of whom were the ones who also helped to promote his films.
While many men openly questioned Valentino, it would be a scathing Chicago Tribune piece that was written by an anonymous writer that would do the most damage. Infamously known as “the pink powder puff” article, Valentino's influence was blamed for the presence of a powdering station that the writer had come across in a hotel men’s bathroom. So how did Rudolph fire back?
Angrily, the film star would write the newspaper challenging the unknown writer to a duel. Unfortunately for Valentino, dueling was illegal at that time, so the next best option was a boxing match. For better or worse, the writer never responded to the letter or the fight. While the unknown writer would avoid the challenge, another newspaper's boxing expert stepped up with the thought that it would be a good publicity kick. Little did he know that Valentino was being trained by heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, leading to Valentino winning the bout. It also didn't hurt that Dempsey himself referred to Valentino as "the most virile and masculine of men."
Although the “Latin Lover”, a nickname that would be given to him by movie studios as a publicity gimmick, gave off the impression that he was a suave and sophisticated ladies man, Valentino stated that his off-screen love life was actually far from what was portrayed to the public and on screen.
During one interview, Valentino stated that “The women I love don’t love me. The others don’t matter.” Despite the sex symbol having multiple lovers and wives during his lifetime, Valentino confessed that he was often unhappy in love and that his romantic life was a lot darker than people expected it to be.
Perhaps due to insecurity over what they saw as a threat to the "traditional" American man, many members of the public and the media still maintained that the “Latin Lover” was a closet homosexual, mainly due to his choice of style and refined tastes.
Whispers and rumors had him romantically linked to various names such as Mexican actor Ramon Novarro and French poet Jacques Hebertot. The tales told by his female lovers that he had lacked interest in having sex with them only helped fuel the fire. While other documents state that Valentino had other male lovers, including two of his roommates, there was no concrete proof of his actual sexual preference.
Regardless of what you thought of his sexuality or how he carried himself, Rudolph Valentino would inadvertently become involved in the public’s sex lives.
As part of the Durex brand of protection, Sheik condoms were released in a tin that had Valentino’s character from “The Sheik” grace the cover of their tin package. Trying to capture the fantasy of what women wanted in the early 1920s, the intense, exotic lover with piercing eyes and flowing robes, Durex gave men a chance to fulfill their lovers' dreams as they identified with The Sheik. While the company never came out and directly stated that Valentino was the character on the tin, everyone knew it was the Latin Lover.
Rudolph wasn't the only one who elicited strong feelings from those around him. When it came to his wife Natacha, everyone besides him seemed to think she was a witch with too much influence and detested her.
From her interference and controlling attitude on his film sets to being the main reason behind his torn relationship with longtime friend and co-worker June Mathis, nearly everyone involved in Valentino's life tried to show the actor how toxic his wife was to his personal and professional life. In 1925, two years after they were officially united, the pair would divorce and Rambova would be contractually banned from appearing on any of the work sets that Valentino was a part of. Obviously influenced by his friends, Valentino would leave Rambova the sum of one dollar in his will.
In the summer of 1926, Valentino would find himself in the prime of his career. Money, success, fans - he had it all. But it all came to an end on August 15th when he collapsed at the Hotel Ambassador in New York and was rushed to the New York Polyclinic Hospital.
It would be there that Rudolph would find that he was suffering from perforated ulcers and a ruptured appendix. Although his medical staff had hoped he would recover from the routine surgery, his health would deteriorate further and he would develop pleuritis in his lungs. But doctors decided against informing him of the likelihood of dying, giving him hope that he would survive.
Despite the fact that he was hospitalized and near death, Valentino was himself to the end, again bringing up the hateful comments made towards him, notably the ones focused on his masculinity.
At one point, the actor turned to his medical staff and asked, "And now do I act like a pink powder puff?" The doctor, knowing that Valentino was not going to live much longer, responded with a heart-wrenching reply that he was actually "braver than most." Whether or not the doctor actually believed this or he was just trying to fill Valentino with a positive message, especially during a time in which he was in severe pain, is unknown.
With the combination of his doctors' words and his own desire to fight through his medical issues, up until his final breath, Rudolph thought that he was going to survive and told his medical staff of all his plans once he left the hospital.
Unfortunately, he would never see these plans come to fruition and according to those that were with him at the time, the thirty-one-year-old's final words were, " Don't pull down the blinds. I feel fine. I want the sunlight to greet me." A week after he was admitted to the hospital, Valentino would enter into a coma and never awaken.
Upon word of his death, the floodgates of emotional responses came from his fans. People littered the streets sobbing in grief and chaotic upset at a level that had never been seen before. During Valentino's funeral, which he had requested be public, over 100,000 mourners were in attendance paying their respects to the fallen star. A riot broke out, injuring over 100 attendees, and windows were smashed as mourners frantically tried to get their glimpse at the silent screen star.
Tragically, those who were as passionate about Valentino as he was about life took their emotions to an extreme level, with numerous tales of suicide taking place as fans followed their Hollywood hero into the darkness.
Even though he had passed, Valentino's name was still creating issues. Shortly before he died, Rudolph had begun a relationship with one of the new "it" girls in Hollywood, actress Pola Negri.
After the two met at a party held by their peers, the two would be an item until the actor died in 1926. While many in the industry believed that the relationship was mainly for exposure and publicity, when Valentino’s funeral came to be, Negri would command the spotlight in her own way.
Throughout Valentino's funeral service, Negri put on what many claimed (tongue in cheek) to be her best performance. In front of the thousands of mourners, Negri sobbed overwhelmingly during the entire service and then proceeded to "faint" on top of her lover's coffin.
At one point, the actress announced to numerous attendees that Valentino had actually proposed to her just days before he passed away, despite nobody actually being able to confirm any truth to the story. However, the most dramatic moment came when the actress demanded that those in attendance place a large flower arrangement on top of Valentino's coffin that spelled out "POLA."
In an odd twist, Valentino would come to be interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary in California next to his old friend June Mathis, with whom he had reconciled before his death. As he had no concrete burial plans upon his sudden death, Mathis offered up the crypt next to hers that she had originally bought for her ex-husband. When she died in 1927, her body was interred next to Valentino's, and there they still remain.
For years following his death, an unknown veiled female would arrive at his gravesite on the anniversary of his passing and place a single rose on his grave. Eventually, it would come to be that the truth was the whole event was a publicity stunt, proving that Rudolph Valentino, ever the diva, continued to be larger-than-life even from the after-life.