Luciano Albertini

The muscular, buoyant Luciano Albertini had first been a circus artist (he had created a famous number on the flying trapeze featuring eight persons) before turning to the movies as an actor, producer and director, first in Italy (where strongmen like him were then in favor), then in Germany (where his Latin appeal made German ladies swoon). He also was popular in both the capitalistic USA (where he was the hero of a serial) and in the communist USSR (appearing in Aleksandr Dovzhenko's Arsenal (1929)). Unfortunately for him, the style of films he made became outdated when sound came and, after a last film in Germany in 1932, he disappeared from the screens.