Alberto Rabagliati

Soon afterwards he died of cerebral thrombosis. He is the author of a play "The Aspen Papers" and four books:. His last public appearance was in 1974 as a guest in the TV show Milleluci hosted by Mina and Raffaella Carrā. He died in a Denham nursing home from Parkinson's disease in 1985, aged 77. He performed in musical reviews and commedies by Garinei and Giovannini. He is the father of the actor Corin Redgrave and the actresses Lynn Redgrave and Vanessa Redgrave, and the grandfather of the actresses Natasha Richardson, Joely Richardson and Jemma Redgrave. Rabagliati was active also on the stage until mid 1950s. He was married to the actress Rachel Kempson for fifty years from 1935 until his death.

From 1940 to 1965 he starred in some twenty movies, including The Barefoot Contessa, Montecarlo, Il Vedovo. Redgrave was knighted in 1959. His enormous fame as a singer helped his acting career restart. In the early 1950s, he starred in The Browning Version, The Importance of Being Earnest and 1984. Indeed, the Fascist government decided to make use of his popularity by choosing his song Sposi (c'č una casetta piccina) ("Wed (there's a little home)") as their demographic campaign anthem. Redgrave moved to Hollywood after a successful career in the British theatre. His first major American role was opposite Rosalind Russell in Mourning Becomes Electra in 1947, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. At a time when anything foreign was banned, the idol Rabagliati was allowed to maintain his American-influenced style. His first major film role was in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes in 1938.

Female audience went crazy for him, and covered him with red roses at every performance. Born in Bristol, the son of the Australian silent film star Roy Redgrave and the actress Margaret Scudamore, he graduated from Cambridge University and was briefly a schoolmaster before becoming an actor in 1934. He was so popular that his name was sung in the lyrics of La famiglia canterina, Quando canta Rabagliati, Quando la radio. Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave (March 20, 1908 - March 21, 1985) was an English actor. Every Monday night EIAR aired Canta Rabagliati ("Rabagliati sings"), with the singer presenting his most famous songs such as Ma l'amore no, Mattinata fiorentina, Ba-ba-baciami piccina, Silenzioso slow, Bambina innamorata. In My Mind's Eye. Rabagliati soon became a radio star, and in 1941 even had his own radio show. The Mountebank Tale.

While with the Lecuona Cuban Boys he met Giovanni D'Anzi who proposed him an audition with Italian state radio station EIAR. Mask or Face. He performed with his face painted black and made a hit with the song Maria la O. The Actor's Ways and Means. After a brief experience with Pippo Barzizza's orchestra, he joined the Lecuona Cuban Boys, a Cuban band. Back in Europe he became a singer.

During his stay he had however the opportunity to get to know new musical genres such as jazz, swing, scat. He remained four years in America, but his career as an actor never took off. He later recalled: "For someone like me, who had seen no more than Lake Como or Monza's cathedral so far, finding myself on board a luxury steamer with three cases full of clothes, a few rolls of dollars, granduchesses and countesses flirting with me was something extraordinary". In 1927 Alberto Rabagliati moved to Hollywood from native Italy as the winner of a Rudolph Valentino look-alike contest.

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. Alberto Rabagliati (Milan, 26 June 1906 - Rome, 7 March 1974) was Italy's first pop star.