August 23, 1926: Rudolph Valentino Dies

August 23, 1926, 100 years ago: Rudolph Valentino dies of peritonitis, the result of appendicitis. There were no antibiotics in those days, so the biggest movie star of the moment was dead at the age of 31. He was born on May 6, 1895, 3 months after Babe Ruth, in Castellaneta, at the top of the "heel" in "the boot of Italy," with the name Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filiberto Guglielmi di…