Rudolph Valentino (Rudolfo Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla) (1895-1926) Italian-born American actor. He became te leading screen personification of theromantic hero in such films as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and The Son of the Sheik (1926). He died of peritonitis, his funeral attended by hordes of hysterical women.
(Source: Brockhampton Reference: Dictionary of Biography)