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Getbig Main Boards => Gossip & Opinions => Topic started by: Bodybuilding Related on October 14, 2009, 11:00:19 AM
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Captain Lou Albano, the crazed and charismatic wrestling icon who played Cyndi Lauper's dad in her "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" video, has died. He was 76.
Albano - known for his wild goatee, usually tamed by a rubber band, and his half-open Hawaiian shirts - was a wrestling world fixture for more than a half-century.
He was inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1996, paying tribute to Albano's management of 15 WWE tag team champions and WWE title holder Ivan Koloff.
The colorful and kooky Albano was dubbed "The Guiding Light" for his "management" work.
"One of the company's most popular and charismatic legends," the WWE said in a statement. "He will be greatly missed."
But Albano's success transcended the ring and catapulted the Captain into pop culture.
The band NRBQ paid homage with their song "Captain Lou," and he appeared in a number of "Miami Vice" episodes along with several films.
His biggest moment came when he teamed with Lauper for a string of videos in 1985, playing her father. The "Rock N Wrestling Connection" helped boost both Lauper's record sales and the WWE's ratings.
Albano also played Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, a hybrid live-action/animated show.
No one was faster to sing the captain's praises than Albano himself.
"Often imitated, never duplicated," was his repeated self-assessment.
He was once a wrestler himself, launching his career in Canada in 1953.
He moved to the WWWF - a WWE precursor - in the early '60s, and won a tag-team title in 1967 by defeating a two-man pairing that included Bruno Sammartino.
Albano found his true calling in the corner, managing other wrestlers with antics that rivaled anything going on in the ring.
Albano's 75th birthday party last year at a Yonkers restaurant turned into a drunken battle royal, with the arrest of one wrestler.
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Should have knocked Cyndi out...
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Albano's 75th birthday party last year at a Yonkers restaurant turned into a drunken battle royal, with the arrest of one wrestler.
;D
That was ECW alumn Sandman.
He allegedly exchanged some words with the restaurant owner, who then threw a glass bottle at Sandy.
Sandman, bleeding heavily, chased the guy into the kitchen and started throwing entire racks of glasses & dishes - trashing the place until police & SWAT were called in.
The cops also had to be treated for glass wounds.
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(http://flabbergastedly.com/wp-content/uploads/Makes%20no%20sense/Samurai%202.gif)
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Bret Hart called him a 'hard-drinking blabber-mouth.' :D
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lol at Sandman story, can totally see that. RIP Captain Lou
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RIP
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Guy looked on death's door in the 80s. Fucking miracle he lasted this long.
Cyndi Lauper is reported to be very sad and eating pound cakes by the dozen.
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RIP Captain Lou!
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/tonyrhinestone/FormulaPour.jpg)
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Gotta give him credit he lasted longer than most wrestlers. :-[
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I thought he died years ago? ???
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He became a vegetarian and lost 150 pounds, but I guess he wasn't that healthy. 76 is considered young nowadays, unless it was cancer.
RIP
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76 is considered young nowadays, unless it was cancer.
True, although in pro-wrestling 76 is considered "precambrian."
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Are you guys kidding me... do you know what the average age of death around the world is.. around 74
what did you all expect him to hit 102, geez.
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I thought he died years ago? ???
That's what I thought. Does anyone under 30 even know who he is? His WWF routine started to fade out by the late 80's.
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I never knew him as a wrestler, but as the Mario and later saw him in Lauper's music videos.