Lou Albano

Early life Albano was born on July 29, 1933, in Rome, Italy. His parents, Carmen Louis Albano (1905–1962) and Eleanor Albano née Marrone (1907–1982), were of Italian heritage but were both born in the United States. Eleanor was a classical concert pianist who had performed at Carnegie Hall and later became a registered nurse. In the 1930s, her brother, a physician, introduced her to Carmen, a former amateur wrestler who was training to be an obstetrician. After marrying, they temporarily relocated to Italy while Carmen pursued his medical degree at the University of Bari. Lou was born around the time his father was studying. He was one of nine children, of whom five lived to adulthood. Carmen later co-patented a forceps instrument to assist in breech birth deliveries. Lou was baptized in Vatican City, and his parents shortly thereafter returned to the New York City area aboard the RMS Majestic.

The Albano family settled in the Mount Vernon, New York area. Lou attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York, where he competed in track and field, and finally rose to the position of captain of the football team. It was this rank that later inspired his wrestling moniker, "Captain" Lou Albano. His skills were such that he received 32 offers of full scholarship from universities around the country, and he chose the University of Tennessee on the strength of their football team. Here, Albano was teammates with the likes of Darris McCord, Doug Atkins, and his roommate, Sam Rutigliano. Albano had conflicts with the dean due to poor behavior and was expelled after attempting to cheat on a final exam.

After leaving the University of Tennessee, Albano then joined the United States Army, but due to a childhood injury exacerbated by his football days, he was honorably discharged after only eight months. While stationed at Fort Dix, he was exposed to professional wrestling, seeing the likes of Gorgeous George, Arnold Skaaland, Soldier Barry, and Lenny Montana—all of whom Albano later worked with.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1953–1967) Although Albano's father, retired from medicine, wanted to open an insurance agency with his son, Lou instead began training as a boxer. A distant cousin and family friend, Lou Duva, introduced Albano to Willie Gilzenberg, a boxing promoter who later became the first titular president of the WWWF. Gilzenberg, noting Albano's relatively short stature, instead encouraged him to enter wrestling. Gilzenberg asked Soldier Barry to help train Albano, and in 1952, the two began doing house shows in the New York area.

Albano was originally seen as a "pretty boy," and wrestled as the babyface "Leaping Lou Albano". After a non-wrestling injury caused a gash on his forehead, he purposely did not allow the scar to heal, and the minor disfigurement allowed him to turn heel. Now billed as the "Mount Vernon Mauler," and occasionally a pirate, he began establishing himself in the New York professional wrestling community. At this point, Gilzenberg introduced Albano to Vincent J. McMahon, promoter of the new Capitol Wrestling Corporation in Washington, D.C.—the first predecessor to what is today WWE. Albano worked for Capitol Wrestling and its successors, under Vince McMahon and his son, for most of the rest of his career.

Albano made little impact as a solo wrestler, working prelims in various circuits, but he achieved moderate success as a tag team performer with partner Tony Altomare.

World Wide Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Federation (1964–1987)

Singles wrestler (1964–1967) In 1964, Albano wrestled for the World Wide Wrestling Federation as a singles competitor where he wrestled against Bobo Brazil, Gorilla Monsoon, Miguel Pérez and Bill Watts.

The Sicilians (1967–1969) Albano returned in 1967 and again partnered with Tony Altomare as "The Sicilians". In July, they won the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship from Arnold Skaaland and Spiros Arion. Albano and Altomare only held the championship for two weeks, a title change which was not even acknowledged on WWWF television outside the Atlantic City, New Jersey market. But several photographs of the pair with their title belts were taken, which elevated Albano's reputation in the wrestling magazines of the time, and provided good publicity fodder later in his career. In late 1969, The Sicilians disbanded and went their separate ways. Growing out his hair and beard, and packing on extra pounds, Albano gave the image of a wild man. He developed a later trademark, applying rubber bands to his beard, after having seen a homeless man do the same. He also often wore a rubber band hanging from a safety pin pushed through his cheek.

In January 1971, Albano was the manager when Ivan Koloff ended Sammartino's seven-year reign as champion.

Another protege of Albano was "Iron" Mike McCord. In a memorable match in 1974 Chief Jay Strongbow applied his famous sleeper hold on McCord but Albano interfered in the match by smashing an arm cast over Strongbow's forehead, causing him to bleed badly. McCord was disqualified due to outside interference. Later Strongbow settled the score by challenging Albano to don the tights once again. And the stage was set in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden, where he defeated Captain Lou Albano quite convincingly.

Albano then resumed his role as the mastermind trying to lead his latest bad guy protégé to the gold. For the remainder of the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, Albano's cadre of loyal henchmen were unable to re-secure the heavyweight championship, held by either Sammartino, Pedro Morales, Bob Backlund or Hulk Hogan. NRBQ compiled all the recordings they'd done with Albano on their album Lou and the Q, which includes their 1981 single "Captain Lou" b/w "Boardin' House Pie"— on which Albano himself sings and rants.

In 1979–1980, Albano helped turn the villainous Intercontinental Champion Pat Patterson into a fan favorite by "purchasing" Patterson's contract from the Grand Wizard of Wrestling for $100,000 against Patterson's will. Albano's protégés, the Wild Samoans, attacked Patterson after he cut a promo insulting Albano.

In 1982, despite being managed by the villainous Albano, Jimmy Snuka was unexpectedly becoming a fan favorite due to his high-flying ring style. An interview segment revealed that Snuka had no legal contract with Albano, and thus was able to leave his manager. Shortly thereafter, a bloody beatdown by Albano, Freddie Blassie and Ray Stevens, helped transform Snuka into a sympathetic figure, and triggered the most successful period of his career.

In 1983, Albano met pop singer Cyndi Lauper on a plane flight from Puerto Rico. Her manager, David Wolff, suggested that the two collaborate on a project at some point in the future. In 1983, the opportunity came when Lauper's video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" needed an actor to play the singer's father, and Albano was suggested. Initially reluctant, he was convinced by his wife to agree, and Lauper and Albano thereafter formed a lifelong friendship. He appeared in several of her music videos and in June 1984, she appeared on Roddy Piper's "Piper's Pit" program to discuss the collaboration. Albano, in character, began denigrating Lauper and women in general and claimed to have written all her songs and been the only reason for her success. Lauper, in turn, assaulted Albano with her purse, and the two agreed to settle their differences in the ring. Albano and Lauper agreed to compete by proxy, each choosing a female wrestler to contend. Lauper chose Wendi Richter, while Albano chose The Fabulous Moolah. The match, scheduled for July 23, 1984, was dubbed The Brawl to End it All, and was broadcast live on MTV. During the match, Lauper interfered on Richter's behalf by hitting Moolah in the head with her purse, dubbed "The Loaded Purse of Doom". At the conclusion of the match, Richter had defeated Moolah for the WWF Women's Championship, which the WWF had promoted Moolah as having held for the previous 28 years.

In the meantime, Albano had become involved in several charities. His brother's brother-in-law had recently died of multiple sclerosis, and the experience led Albano to lend his time to raising awareness and funds to combat the disease, occasionally alongside Lauper. His increasingly public benevolence clashed with his in-ring persona, which violated the principles of kayfabe—maintaining the appearance of reality within professional wrestling—which were still strictly adhered to at the time. Near the end of 1984, Albano decided it was time, after 32 years as a heel, to turn face. He therefore arranged for Lauper to receive an in-ring award for her contributions to both wrestling and the fight against MS, for which he also came out and congratulated her. In the course of the ceremony, Roddy Piper and "Cowboy" Bob Orton came into the ring to sarcastically praise Albano before breaking Lauper's award, a gold record plaque, over his head. Lauper and her boyfriend-manager David Wolff were also attacked by Piper and Orton. The melee was broken up by Hulk Hogan who draped himself across Albano to protect him from further onslaught, signalling to the audience that the once notorious heel manager was suddenly now a fellow babyface. The altercation allowed Albano to now wrestle and manage as a crowd favorite. His last two (heel) singles protégés, Valentine and Ken Patera, were paired with Jimmy Hart and Bobby Heenan, respectively, after Albano's face turn. Although he continued his overblown, rambling interviews—one of the lead announcers for the WWF, Gorilla Monsoon, continued to refer to Albano as "The Fountain of Misinformation"—Albano was now leading fan favorites such as The U.S. Express, George Steele (a former wildman heel whom Albano aided after he was abandoned by his partners after losing a six-man tag match against Albano's men), The British Bulldogs, Hulk Hogan and André the Giant into battle. The U.S. Express and British Bulldogs became the first tag teams to win the WWF Tag Team Championships with Albano as a "face" manager. He managed the U.S. Express at WrestleMania I.

Albano left the WWF in late 1986 with one final match on an episode of Wrestling Challenge that aired on November 16, 1986, teaming with The British Bulldogs to defeat The Dream Team and Luscious Johnny Vailant. Albano would then make a one-time appearance on a "Piper's Pit" on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling in February 1987 to ask André the Giant to reconsider his recent alignment with Bobby Heenan.

Universal Wrestling Federation (1991) Albano briefly worked in Herb Abrams' UWF promotion in 1991, where he hosted an interview segment.

Return to WWF and retirement (1994–1997) Albano returned to the WWF in 1994 to manage the newly face-turned Headshrinkers, helping lead them to the WWF Tag Team Championship. He left in early 1995, making sporadic appearances as a guest from then on, but never again as a manager. He later retired from managing wrestlers in 1996.

Television and film

Albano appeared in the 1986 film Wise Guys, starring Danny DeVito. He played the role of Mario, Nintendo's mascot, in both the live-action and animated segments of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, a TV series based on the Super Mario Bros. game series. He also had roles in the TV series 227, Hey Dude, and Miami Vice, the 1992 film Stay Tuned, and was a recurring guest on the game show Hollywood Squares. Albano played a villainous caricature of himself named "Captain Lou Morano" in the 1987 movie Body Slam, starring Dirk Benedict and Roddy Piper. The film also included cameo appearances by wrestlers Ric Flair, Freddie Blassie, and Bruno Sammartino. Albano played the role of the father in Cyndi Lauper's music videos for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" and "She Bop", as well as a cook in the video for her song "Time After Time".

Personal life In 1953, Albano married his high school sweetheart, Geraldine Tango. The marriage lasted 56 years, until his death. Albano has been noted by several others for his faithfulness to his wife, a rare characteristic in the on-the-road world of 1970s and 1980s professional wrestling. Albano released his autobiography, Often Imitated, Never Duplicated, on July 20, 2008, through his website. The book includes a foreword by Cyndi Lauper. The other Albano siblings are Vincent, George, Eleanor, and Carl, all of whom became teachers. Albano's brother, Carl, taught health for 32 years at Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and was head of the Ridgewood High health department from 1974 until 2001. Carl's students have noted that he used his brother Lou as an example of the difference between crazy and unique. George served as the principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Mount Vernon, New York, and often brought Lou in to delight the school's students during their lunch hour. Vincent was an art teacher and lived part-time in a lake house in Connecticut. Eleanor was a music teacher for preschool students in Connecticut.

Albano's son, Carl Albano, served as a member of the Putnam County Legislature from 2011 until his departure due to term limits on December 31, 2022. While serving in the Putnam County Legislature, Albano's son Carl earned the title of "Dean of Putnam Legislature."

During the 1990s, Albano shed 150 pounds (68.0389 kg) following a health scare. In May 2005, Albano suffered a heart attack, but later recovered. Albano was sent home from the hospital and again began watching his health. The song "Captain Lou" by Kimya Dawson is dedicated to him (not to be confused with the 1981 NRBQ song of the same name).

Death Albano died on October 14, 2009, in Westchester County, New York, of a heart attack while residing in hospice care. He was 76 years old.

Filmography Film YearTitleRoleNotes 1980 Below the Belt Wrestler 1986 Wise Guys Frank 'The Fixer' Acavano Body Slam Captain Lou Murano 1991 Complex World Boris Lee 1992 Stay Tuned Ring Announcer 2000 The Boys Behind the Desk 2001 Mafioso: The Father, the Son Doc 2003 The Undertaker's Dozen Lou Costanza 2010 Hot Ice, No-one Is Safe Frankie the Hat

Television YearTitleRoleNotes 1963 Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine Sandpaper Sam Staccato 1 episode 1986 227 Gus Episode: "We the People" 1986 Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling Captain Lou Albano Episode: "Ballet Buffoons/Battle of the Bands" 1987 Miami Vice Henchman #1 Episode: "By Hooker by Crook" 1989 The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Mario, Mama Mario, Marianne, Mario Joe, Himself 65 episodes 1990 Hey Dude Captain Lou Episode: "Killer Ernst" 1992 Ghostwriter Cabbie Episode: "Who Burned Mr. Brinker's Store?: Part 2"

Video games

Music videos YearTitleRole 1983 "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" Dad 1984 "Time After Time" Cook "She Bop" Guard 1985 "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" Cyndi's Father

Championships and accomplishments Cauliflower Alley Club Other honoree (1995) Fred Kohler Enterprises Midwest Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Tony Altomare National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024 New England Wrestling Alliance NEWA Hall of Fame (Class of 2011) Pro Wrestling Illustrated Manager of the Year (1974, 1981, 1986) Editors' Award (1994) Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum Class of 2009 World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Federation WWWF United States Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Tony Altomare WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1996) Wrestling Observer Newsletter Best on Interviews (1981) tied with Roddy Piper Worst Worked Match of the Year (1985) vs. Freddie Blassie at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2012)