Joe Dallesandro | |
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Born | Joseph Angelo D'Allesandro III December 31, 1948 Pensacola, Florida, U.S. |
Other names |
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Occupations |
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Years active | 1967–present |
Spouses | Leslie (m. 1967;div. 1969)Theresa (m. 1970;div. 1978)Kim Dallesandro (m. 1987) |
Children | 2 |
Website | joedallesandro |
Joseph Angelo D'Allesandro III (born December 31, 1948) is an American actor and Warhol superstar. He was a sex symbol of gay subculture in the 1960s and 1970s, and of several American underground films before going mainstream. [1]
Dallesandro starred in the 1968 film Flesh as a male prostitute. The film was produced by Andy Warhol. In 1970, Rolling Stone declared Dallesandro's second starring vehicle, Trash , the "Best Film of the Year", making him a star of the youth culture, sexual revolution, and subcultural New York City art collective of the 1970s. Dallesandro also starred in 1972's Heat , another Warhol film that was conceived as a parody of the film Sunset Boulevard . He later lived for several years in Europe, where he starred in both genre and art films. Having returned to the United States, he also crossed over into mainstream roles such as mobster Lucky Luciano in the film The Cotton Club .
This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(September 2023) |
Joe Dallesandro was born in Pensacola, Florida, to Joseph Angelo D'Allesandro II, who was in the U.S. Navy. His mother, Thelma Testman, was 16 years old. By the time Joe III was five years old, his mother was serving fifteen years in a U.S. federal penitentiary for interstate auto theft.
Dallesandro and his brother Bobby were taken to New York by their father, who worked as an electrical engineer. Both boys were eventually placed into the Angel Guardian Home in Harlem, prior to being fostered by a couple in Brooklyn. The family later moved to North Babylon, Long Island. The senior D'Allesandro would visit them about once a month at their foster parents' home. Dallesandro was initially content living with his foster parents, but later reportedly began to resent them, thinking that they were preventing him from living with his father. [2]
Dallesandro began acting out, and became aggressive. He repeatedly ran away from his foster home until the senior D'Allesandro finally relented and allowed Joe to live with him. [2] At age 14, Dallesandro and his brother moved to Queens to live with their paternal grandparents and their father. [3]
At age 15, he was expelled from school for punching the school principal, who had reportedly insulted his father. After this, he began hanging out with gangs and stealing cars. In one such instance, Dallesandro panicked and smashed the stolen car he was driving through the gate of the Holland Tunnel. He was stopped by a police roadblock and was shot once in the leg by police who mistakenly thought he was armed. Dallesandro managed to escape being caught by police, but was later arrested when his father took him to the hospital for his gunshot wound. He was sentenced to Camp Cass Rehabilitation Center for Boys in the Catskills in 1964. [4]
In 1965, aged 16, he ran away from the camp, and supported himself by nude modeling, appearing most notably in short films and magazine photos for Bob Mizer's Athletic Model Guild. [5]
Dallesandro met Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey in 1967 while they were shooting Four Stars , and they cast him in the film on the spot. [6] Warhol would later comment "In my movies, everyone's in love with Joe Dallesandro." [7]
Dallesandro played a hustler in his third Warhol film, Flesh (1968), where he had several nude scenes. Flesh became a crossover hit with mainstream audiences, and Dallesandro became the most popular of the Warhol stars. New York Times film critic Vincent Canby wrote of him: "His physique is so magnificently shaped that men as well as women become disconnected at the sight of him." [8]
As Dallesandro's underground fame began to cross over into the popular culture, he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in April 1971. He was also photographed by some of the top celebrity photographers of the time: Francesco Scavullo, Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon. [9]
Dallesandro appeared in Lonesome Cowboys (1968), Trash (1970), Heat (1972), Andy Warhol's Frankenstein , and Andy Warhol's Dracula (both 1974), also directed by Morrissey. These last two films were shot in Europe. After filming was complete, he chose not to return to the U.S. [10] He appeared in Serge Gainsbourg's Je t'aime moi non plus (France, 1976), which starred Gainsbourg's girlfriend, British actress Jane Birkin.
Dallesandro continued to star in films made mainly in France and Italy for the rest of the decade, returning to the U.S. in the 1980s. He made several mainstream films during the 1980s and 1990s. One of his first notable roles was that of 1920s gangster Lucky Luciano in Francis Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984). Working with manager/attorney Stann Findelle, his career enjoyed a resurgence.
He had roles in Critical Condition (1987) opposite Richard Pryor, Sunset (1988) with Bruce Willis and James Garner, Cry-Baby (1990) with Johnny Depp, Guncrazy (1992) with Drew Barrymore, and Steven Soderbergh's 1999 film The Limey . He has also worked in television. In 1986, he co-starred in the ABC drama series Fortune Dane . The series lasted only five episodes. Dallesandro was also a regular for the first season (1987-1988) of the CBS crime drama series Wiseguy , appeared in three episodes of NBC’s Miami Vice , and a two-hour episode of ABC's Matlock in 1990. [11]
A biography, Little Joe: Superstar by Michael Ferguson was released earlier in 2001, and a filmed documentary, Little Joe (2009), was released with Dallesandro serving as writer and producer. His adopted daughter, Vedra Mehagian, also served as a producer of the film.[ citation needed ]
In February 2009, Dallesandro received the Teddy Award, an honor recognizing those filmmakers and artists who have contributed to the further acceptance of LGBT people, culture and artistic vision.
He appeared in the Dandy Warhols' official video for "You are Killing Me" in 2016. [12]
In 2018 he starred as himself in Ulli Lommel's Factory Cowboys: Working with Warhol. The film was based on Lommel's own biography and partly on Dallesandro's memories of the period during which he worked with Andy Warhol. [13]
Dallesandro is openly bisexual, [14] has married three times, and has three children. [15]
Aged 18, he married his first wife, Leslie, the daughter of his father's girlfriend, in 1967. Their son, Michael, was born December 19, 1968. The marriage was dissolved in 1969. His second marriage was to Theresa ("Terry") in 1970. Their son, Joseph A. Dallesandro, Jr., was born November 14, 1970. The couple divorced in early 1978. In 1987, Dallesandro was married a third time, to Kimberly ("Kim").[ citation needed ] Dallesandro has a grandson and a granddaughter by his son Michael, as well as a grandson by his son Joseph. [16]
Semi-retired from acting, as of 2009 Dallesandro managed a residential hotel building in Los Angeles. [17]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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1967 | Four Stars | College Wrestler | Alternative title: The 24 Hour Movie |
1968 | San Diego Surf | Joe | |
1968 | The Loves of Ondine | College Wrestler | |
1968 | Flesh | Joe, The Hustler | Alternative title: Andy Warhol's Flesh |
1968 | Lonesome Cowboys | Joe "Little Joe" | Alternative title: Ramona and Julian |
1970 | Trash | Joe Smith | Alternative title: Andy Warhol's Trash |
1972 | Heat | Joey Davis | |
1973 | Andy Warhol's Frankenstein | Nicholas, The Stableboy | Alternative title: Flesh for Frankenstein |
1974 | Blood for Dracula | Mario Balato, The Servant | Alternative title: Andy Warhol's Dracula |
1974 | The Gardener | Carl, The Gardener | Alternative titles: Garden of Death, Seeds of Evil |
1975 | The Climber | Aldo, The Climber | Alternative title: L'ambizioso |
1975 | Black Moon | Brother Lily | |
1975 | Savage Three | Ovidio Mainardi | Alternative title: Fango bollente |
1975 | Season for Assassins | Pierro Giaranaldi | Alternative title: Il tempo degli assassini |
1976 | Je t'aime moi non plus | Krassky | Alternative title: I Love You, I Don't or I Love You ... Neither Do I |
1976 | La Marge | Sigismond | Alternative title: The Streetwalker |
1978 | Safari Rally | Joe Massi | Alternative title: 6000 km di paura |
1978 | Killer Nun | Dr. Patrick Roland | Alternative titles: Suor Omicidi Deadly Habits |
1980 | Madness | Joe Brezzi | Alternative title: Vacanze per un massacro |
1981 | Merry-Go-Round | Ben | |
1982 | Queen Lear | Joseph Kunz, The Father | |
1984 | The Cotton Club | Charlie "Lucky" Luciano | |
1984 | Miami Vice | Vinnie DeMarco | Episode: "One Eyed Jack" |
1986 | Fortune Dane | Tommy "Perfect Tommy" Nicautri | 5 episodes |
1987 | Critical Condition | Stucky | |
1987 | Miami Vice | Alfredo Giulinni | Episode: "Down for the Count: Part 2" |
1987 | Wiseguy | Paul "Pat The Cat" Patrice | 5 episodes |
1988 | Sunset | "Dutch" Kieffer | |
1988 | The Hitchhiker | Gerard | Episode: "Fashion Exchange" |
1988 | Double Revenge | Joe Halsey | |
1989 | The Hollywood Detective | Eddie Northcott | Television movie |
1990 | Matlock | Bobby Boyd | 2 episodes |
1990 | Almost an Angel | Bank Hood Leader | |
1990 | Cry-Baby | Mr. Hackett | |
1991 | Inside Out | Richard | Segment: "The Diaries" |
1991 | Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue | Jules | |
1992 | Guncrazy | Rooney | |
1992 | Love Is Like That | The Boss | |
1994 | Sugar Hill | Tony Adamo | |
1995 | Theodore Rex | Rogan | Direct-to-video release |
1998 | L.A. Without a Map | Michael | |
1999 | The Limey | John "Uncle John", The Hitman | Credited as Joe Dallessandro |
2000 | Beefcake | Cameos, old footage | |
2002 | Pacino Is Missing | Sal Colletti | |
2008 | 3 Stories About Evil | Jean Maries | Short film |
2022 | Babylon | Charlie the Photographer | |
Andy Warhol was an American visual artist, film director, producer, and leading figure in the pop art movement. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental films Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).
Paul Morrissey is an American film director, best known for his association with Andy Warhol. He was also director of the first film in which a transgender actress, Holly Woodlawn, starred as a girlfriend of the main character played by Joe Dallesandro in Trash (1970).
Edith Minturn Sedgwick Post was an American actress and fashion model who was one of Andy Warhol's superstars, starring in several of his short films during the 1960s. Her prominence led to her being dubbed an "It Girl", while Vogue magazine named her a "Youthquaker".
Warhol superstars were a clique of New York City personalities promoted by the pop artist Andy Warhol during the 1960s and early 1970s. These personalities appeared in Warhol's artworks and accompanied him in his social life, epitomizing his dictum, "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes". Warhol would simply film them, and declare them "superstars".
Eric Emerson was an American musician, dancer, and actor. Emerson is best known for his roles in films by pop artist Andy Warhol, and as a member of the seminal glam punk group the Magic Tramps.
The Factory was Andy Warhol's studio in New York City, which had four locations between 1963 and 1987. The Factory became famed for its parties in the 1960s. It was the hip hangout spot for artists, musicians, celebrities and Warhol's superstars. The original Factory was often referred to as the Silver Factory. In the studio, Warhol's workers would make silkscreens and lithographs under his direction.
"Walk on the Wild Side" is a song by American rock musician Lou Reed from his second solo studio album, Transformer (1972). It was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson and released as a double A-side with "Perfect Day". Known as a counterculture anthem, the song received wide radio coverage and became Reed's biggest hit and signature song while touching on topics considered taboo at the time, such as transgender people, drugs, male prostitution, and oral sex.
Candy Darling was an American transgender actress, best known as a Warhol superstar. She starred in Andy Warhol's films Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971), and was a muse of the Velvet Underground.
Trash is a 1970 American drama film directed and written by Paul Morrissey and starring Joe Dallesandro, Holly Woodlawn and Jane Forth. Dallesandro had previously starred in several other Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey films such as The Loves of Ondine, Lonesome Cowboys, San Diego Surf, and Flesh.
Flesh is a 1968 American film directed by Paul Morrissey and starring Joe Dallesandro as a hustler working on the streets of New York City. It highlights various Warhol superstars, in addition to being the film debuts of both Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling. Also appearing are Geraldine Smith as Joe's wife and Patti D'Arbanville as her lover.
Lonesome Cowboys is a 1968 American Western film directed by Andy Warhol and written and produced by Paul Morrissey. The film is a satire of Hollywood Westerns, and was initially screened in November 1968 at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it won the Best Film Award. On May 5, 1969, it was shown for initial viewings at the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre in New York City.
Flesh for Frankenstein is a 1973 horror film written and directed by Paul Morrissey. It stars Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren and Arno Juerging. Interiors were filmed at Cinecittà in Rome by a crew of Italian filmmakers.
Blood for Dracula is a 1974 horror film written and directed by Paul Morrissey and starring Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Maxime McKendry, Stefania Casini, Arno Juerging, and Vittorio de Sica. Upon its initial 1974 release in West Germany and the United States, Blood for Dracula was released as Andy Warhol's Dracula.
a, A Novel is a 1968 book by the American artist Andy Warhol published by Grove Press. It is a nearly word-for-word transcription of tapes recorded by Warhol and Ondine over a two-year period in 1965–1967.
Heat is a 1972 American comedy drama film written and directed by Paul Morrissey, produced by Andy Warhol, and starring Joe Dallesandro, Sylvia Miles and Andrea Feldman. The film was conceived by Warhol as a parody of the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. It is the final installment of the "Paul Morrissey Trilogy" produced by Warhol, following Flesh (1968) and Trash (1970).
San Diego Surf is a 1968 feature film directed by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, and filmed in La Jolla, California in May 1968. On June 3, 1968, Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas, bringing work on the film to a halt. In 1996, the Andy Warhol Foundation commissioned Morrissey to "finish editing the film based on Warhol's notes".
The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart is a 1970 American film distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) about a confused college student's experiences with sex, relationships, and drugs in late 1960s New York City. Produced by Martin Poll and directed by Leonard J. Horn, the film was based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Robert T. Westbrook, who was also an associate producer of the film. It was the film debut of Don Johnson, who appeared in the title role.
Geraldine Smith is an American actress.
Jane Forth is an American actress and model, best known for having been one of the Warhol superstars, starring in films such as Trash, and being one of “Antonio’s Girls”, models and muses of fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez.
The Garrick Cinema was a 199-seat movie house at 152 Bleecker Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Andy Warhol debuted many of his notable films in this building in the late 1960s. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention played here nightly for 6 months in 1967.