DEATH OF FAMOUS FILM ARTIST.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3529, 26 August 1926, Page 3

DEATH OF FAMOUS FILM ARTIST.

RUDOLPH VALENTINO. New York, August 23. After having been all for the past week, with peritonitis, Rudolph Valentino, the well-known scren actor, died on Monday. The rise of Rudolph Valentino to the highest peak of popularity with the picture public reads like a romance. It has been stated that this “idol of the screen” was a restaurant waiter only a few years ago, and that he ventured into the business on being told that he would “register well.” That advice was the finger that pointed to fortune. He sought an opening and was employed as an extra for a time, until an astute producer recognised those qualities which made for popularity on the screen—clean-cut fe.atures, expressive eyes and hah 1 , a good figure, graceful walk, and reserve. Valentino had all these —and behind them intelligence. He made his first pronounced hit in Ibanez’s “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” in which picture the character of the adventurous and romantic young Argentino was exactly suited to the actor’s “type.” “The Four Horsemen” was an epoch-making picture, which immediately raised Valentino to stardom. He had the good fortune to be selected to portray the title role in “The Sheik,” a part which made him an idol with the public, and placed hint in the post-ion to demand a prncely salary.