“RUDOLPH VALENTINO - THE GREAT LOVER" - Sunday, February 12 at 1:30 pm at the Italian Center (6821 Fair Oaks Blvd, Carmichael, CA). Admission $10 / Refreshments Included / Doors Open at 1:00p From St. Valentine in 200 AD and Giacomo Casanova in the 1700s, through Marcello Mastroianni, Gina Lollabrigida, Rosano Brazzi, and Sophia Loren to Fabio, the image of Italians as romantic lovers has a long legacy.

But Hollywood’s top Italian male sex symbol was the legendary actor Rudolph Valentino. Arriving in New York as an 18 year old immigrant from Apulia, Italy in 1913, he became Hollywood’s top star at the peak of the silent film era in the 1920’s. Famous for his dark looks and onscreen passions he rose to the status of a living legend and remains Hollywood’s greatest screen Lover.

The most famous of Valentino’s films are “The Sheik” and “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” both made in 1921. His performance in the “The Sheik” made him an instant superstar and male sex symbol. In the annals of Cinema and American culture he is celebrated as the quintessential “Latin Lover.” After his untimely death at the age of 31 in 1926, an estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of Broadway in Manhattan, New York, to pay their respects at his funeral. This film biography presents the life of Valentino.