This led to a series of quickly formed and broken “engagements” to the likes of Gary Cooper (so, so hot when young, trust), the director Victor Fleming, and “Latin Lover” Gilbert Roland. When Rudolph Valentino (the quintessential “Latin lover,” who had multiple marriages of his own) died tragically in 1926, the world mourned for him. At his funeral, Pola Negri (another famous actress at the time, as well as Valentino’s latest fling) publicly fainted in front of his coffin and later said that they were engaged. The Heartthrob: Rudolph Valentino . Useful websites for … The mid-1920s led to a few opportunities for Latino actors and actresses. Valentino, otherewise known as the "Latin Lover," was a very successful and talented actor. He was a sex symbol of the 1920s and an early pop icon. Though born Jewish, he played mainly “Latin lover” types and gangsters during the 1920s and ’30s, a heady era before the Motion Picture Production Code … The popularity of the Italian actor Rudolph Valentino, the original "Latin lover", created opportunities for Latino actors and actresses such as Ramón Novarro, Dolores del Río, Lupe Vélez, Carmen Miranda etc. With the rise of the Latin Lover image in the 1920s — which actually was more Mediterranean than Latin American — many Latinos were able to secure leading roles. It is the first video filmed of anybody dancing tango (the tango was born in Buenos Aires around 1890). When she had a “case of nerves” in the late ’20s, she was treated by a Hollywood doctor. The “Latin Lover” was one of the biggest stars on the silver screen—and when his life was cut brutally short at the height of his fame, the fallout was legendary. These actors and actresses were cast in major roles, often as passionate, sensuous Latin Lover types, and became international stars in silent films of the mid- to late 1920s. For a tragically brief time in the 1920s, Rudolph Valentino romanced the world. Dubbed the "Latin Lover," the matinee idol symbolized the forbidden and mysterious eroticism denied to American women in the 1920s in such films as The Sheik (1921), Camille (1921), the successful Blood and Sand (1922), The Eagle (1925), and The Sheik's popular sequel The Son of the Sheik (1926). 1920s Type: The Latin Lover . The flip side of this development is that the image of Latinos as gigolos or Latinas as vamps became embedded into the moviegoers mind, says Rios-Bustamante. But behind his sad, soulful eyes lurked secrets that were even darker than his infamous end. Silent movie star Rudolph Valentino was cinema's first great heartthrob. Hollywood's original Latin Lover, a term that was invented for Rudolph Valentino by Hollywood moguls. - Rudolph Valentino, 1920s sex symbol, 'The Latin Lover,' 'The Shiek' (one of the first Hollywood stars) dancing tango here in the silent film of 1921, THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE.