Never the most talented ring technician to begin with, Albano was nonetheless indisputably good at provoking the fans. The Sicilians had a good run - they even briefly held the United States tag titles in Vince McMahon Sr.'s World Wide Wrestling Federation (the progenitor of the WWE) - but by 1969 they had dissolved their union. This basic equation would repeat itself throughout Albano's career. And it's instructive that Albano so straightforwardly and eagerly became someone else for mainstream exposure. I won't claim to have seen the show, but it's interesting nonetheless that Gleason, in bringing the wrestling world in all its oddity to mainstream culture, chose a young Lou Albano as his shepherd. In retrospect, it's paradoxical that a performer footed in the Golden Age of wrestling would incite its unraveling.Īlbano and Altomare also appeared on a 1963 episode of Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine (aka The Jackie Gleason Show), as professional wrestler Sandpaper Sam Staccato and referee Harry Hornet respectively. And in that way, he kicked open the doors for wrestling's erratic modern era, his dissociative personality spreading to his sport at large. But if Albano can't be defined without some acquiescence to all of these disparate parts - if he's as much none of them as he is all of them - the confusion was largely of his own creation. The popular image of Captain Lou Albano is probably a crude amalgamation of the first three the lattermost is certainly the most accurate if longevity - or the opinion of wrestling diehards - is the measure of a reputation. Survivors include his wife, Geri, four children and 14 grandchildren.One could forgive a child of 1991 if he were to look at a photo of Captain Lou Albano and say, "That's Super Mario," or a teenager from 1986 if he were to say, "That's Cyndi Lauper's dad." Similarly, one could forgive a late '80s wrestling fan if he saw Albano only as a buffoonish torchbearer for the good guy wrestlers, or an older wrestling fan if he knew him only as a loudmouth heel hypeman. After moving to the U.S., the family settled in Mount Vernon, N.Y. They were known for wearing fedoras and talking about the Mafia in interviews, according to the book WWE Legends by Brian Solomon.Īlbano also coached popular tag teams such as The Wild Samoans, The Executioners and The Moondogs before retiring from the WWE in 1996.Īlbano was born on July 29, 1933, in Rome. His career in the ring began in 1953 in Canada, and he went on to form the "The Sicilians" tag team with Tony Altimore. Super Show, a live-action animated show, from 1989 to 1991. Wrestler developed acting careerĪlbano later had a role in the music video for Lauper's 1984 song Time After Time, and he appeared in episodes of the TV series Miami Vice and in the 1986 movie Body Slam. It was a time when wrestlers such as Albano, Hulk Hogan, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and André the Giant were so popular that they could headline a television cartoon series and appear in movies. "When that came out, let me tell you, it just rocketed." "When the Captain hit the screen with the video, it gave us a whole new audience," said "Irish" Davey O'Hannon, a professional wrestler who knew Albano since the 1970s. That helped bring pro wrestling to a wider national audience in the mid-1980s, known as the "Rock n' Wrestling" era. Partly because of the success of Albano's partnership with Lauper, the entity then known as the World Wrestling Federation forged ties with the music industry. His fame skyrocketed when he appeared in Lauper's landmark 1983 music video, playing a scruffy, overbearing father in a white tank top who gets shoved against a wall by the singer. With his trademark Hawaiian shirts, wiry goatee and rubber bands hung like piercings from his cheek, Albano was an outsize personality who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, was known as much for his showmanship as for his talent in the ring. World Wrestling Entertainment called him one of the company's "most popular and charismatic legends." He was 76.Īlbano, whose real name was Louis Vincent Albano, died in Westchester County in suburban New York, said Dawn Marie, founder of Wrestlers Rescue, an organization that helps raise money for the health care of retired wrestlers. "Captain" Lou Albano, who became one of the most recognized professional wrestlers of the 1980s after appearing in Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun music video, died Wednesday.
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