Lou Albano

Louis Vincent Albano
Data
Ring name	Lou Albano Captain Lou Albano Louis Albano
height	178 cm
Fighting weight	159 kg
birth	July 29, 1933 Rome , Italy
death	October 14, 2009 Westchester County , New York
Announced from	Carmel , New York
debut	1953
retirement	1995

Louis Vincent Albano (born July 29, 1933 in Rome , Italy , † October 14, 2009 in Westchester County , New York , USA ) was an Italian wrestler , wrestling manager and actor . He was best known under his ring name "Captain" Lou Albano and as a ring companion ( manager ) of tag teams and individual wrestlers.

Career

Albano began wrestling in 1953. The first successes came in the late 50s together in the tag team with Tony Altimore as The Sicilians , which represented the stereotype of the Italian-born Cosa Nostra gangster as a gimmick . In 1961 they won the important Midwest Tag Team title , and in 1967 the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship . However, they changed their gimmick after being asked to do so by real mobsters. He only got really famous after the tag team ended, when he decided to become a manager. In addition to the WWWF world champion Ivan Koloff , he was best known as the manager of numerous tag teams, 15 of which received the WWF tag team title in the 20 years of his activity.

In the 1980s he agreed to work with the singer Cyndi Lauper . This formed the starting point of the rock 'n' wrestling period of the WWF (WWE since 2002), which greatly contributed to the league's increasing popularity in the 80s. While Albano, for his part, played small roles in some of Lauper's videos (including Girls Just Want to Have Fun ), Lauper appeared as a manager on WWF shows. The wrestlers managed by both of them feuded with each other, the subsequent reconciliation in front of the camera helped him to become very popular.

Albano used his increased fame through his collaboration with Lauper to appear as an actor in supporting roles in television series such as Miami Vice . In 1987 he played the villain Frankie "the Fixer" Avacano in the comedy Wise Guys alongside Danny DeVito.

In 1986 Albano ended his active time and in 1989 played the video game character Super Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! . In addition, he only appeared occasionally in smaller independent leagues in his manager gimmick and at the WWF only in legend matches.

In 1996 Albano was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame.

In 2005 he suffered a heart attack and lost weight as a result. He became a vegetarian and subsequently lost over 70 kg.

In 2008, Albano resigned from wrestling just a few weeks before his 75th birthday by announcing after an event in an independent league that he would no longer compete in any wrestling event. On his 75th birthday, wrestler Jim Fullington fought with police officers, among other things, after he had hit an innkeeper in the face. Albano was held indirectly responsible for the incident and obliged to pay for the damage incurred in the restaurant.

He died on October 14, 2009 at the age of 76.

Web links

Commons : Lou Albano  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Profile in the WWE Hall of Fame

Individual evidence

1. ↑ csb5.com: Report on Albanos on his death ( Memento from July 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ www.cagematch.de: Lou Albano's profile
3. ↑ ^{a b} ( Albano's entry in the WWE Hall of Fame , English, visited on August 1, 2008).
4. ↑ www.wrestlingmuseum.com: Lou Albano
5. ↑ Tracy Rasmussen: Capt. Lou Albano's wrestling swansong comes Saturday in Shillington , Reading Eagle Correspondent June 19, 2008.