{{short description|Italian actor}} {{About||the Mexican footballer|Mario Carrillo}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Mario Carillo | image = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1883|05|15|df=yes}} | birth_name = Mario Caracciolo di Melito | birth_place = Naples, Italy | death_date = {{Death date and age|1958|12|03|1883|05|15|df=yes}} | death_place = Rome, Italy | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1920–1930 | spouse = Miriam Crosby (m. 1915) | parents = Filippo Caracciolo di Castagneto, Duke di Melito<ref name=Melito>[https://www.famiglienobilinapolitane.it/Genealogie/Caracciolo%20di%20Castagneto.htm Caracciolo de Castagneto], ''Famiglie Nobili delle Province Napolitane''. Retrieved 30 August 2022.</ref><br>Emilia Compagna ''dei Baroni'' Compagna }} '''Mario Caracciolo''' '''''dei Duchi''''' '''di Melito''' (15 May 1883 – 3 December 1958), known professionally as '''Mario Carillo''' and in society events as '''Count <ref name=Courtesy>The younger sons are not entitled to inherit the hereditary title of their father in the Nobility of Italy. They all usually bear from birth the junior titles of ''Nobile'' or ''Don''.</ref> Mario Caracciolo di Melito''', was an Italian actor who worked in silent films in Hollywood in the 1920s.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IptOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Count+Mario+Caracciolo%22&pg=PA167|title=Theatre Magazine|last1=Thorold|first1=W. J.|last2=Hornblow|first2=Arthur|last3=Maxwell|first3=Perriton|last4=Beach|first4=Stewart|date=1922|publisher=Theatre Magazine Company|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wCD5EH64Qw8C&q=%22Count+Mario+Caracciolo%22&pg=PA38|title=The Parade's Gone By|last=Brownlow|first=Kevin|date=1968|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-03068-8|language=en}}</ref>
== Biography ==
=== Origins === Mario was born as ''Nobile'' Mario Caracciolo ''dei Duchi'' [of the Dukes] di Melito (aka "Count"<ref name=Courtesy/><ref>Mendola, Louis (2015). [http://www.regalis.com/nobletitles.htm "Italian Titles of Nobility"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120527112610/http://www.regalis.com/nobletitles.htm |date=27 May 2012 }}. ''Regalis.com''. Retrieved 30 August 2022.</ref> Mario Caracciolo di Melito) into the House of Caracciolo, a wealthy noble family in Naples, in 1883 (some sources claim his birth year as 1894).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Napoli/New York/Hollywood: Film between Italy and the United States (Critical Studies in Italian America)|last=Muscio|first=Giuliana|date=30 October 2018|publisher=Fordham University Press|location=New York City|isbn=9780823279388}}</ref> He was the cadet son of Filippo Caracciolo di Castagneto (1843-1904), 1st Duke di Melito, and wife the Duchess di Melito, born ''Donna'' Emilia Compagna ''dei Baroni'' [of the Barons] Compagna.<ref name=Melito/>
Mario served as an officer in the Italian cavalry before moving to the United States.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/valentinoasiknew00sgeo|title=Valentino: As I Knew Him|last=S. George Ullman|date=1926|publisher=New York, Macy-Masius|others=Media History Digital Library|edition=3rd}}</ref> He worked as an attaché at the Italian embassy in Washington, D.C., where he met and married Miriam Crosby in 1915.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJXolLEuuQwC&q=%22Count+Mario+Caracciolo%22&pg=RA5-PA47|title=The Spur|date=1922|publisher=Angus Company|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/28866981/?terms=%22mario+caracciolo%22|title=Becomes Bride of Titled Italian|last=|first=|date=5 Jul 1915|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-11-27}}</ref> The pair had a son, Ludovico (1920-1941).<ref name=Genmarenostrum>{{Cite web|url=http://www.genmarenostrum.com/pagine-lettere/letterac/Caracciolo/Caracciolo-castagneto.htm|title=Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà Mediterranea – Caracciolo di Castagneto|work=genmarenostrum.com|language=it|access-date=30 August 2022}}</ref>
=== Hollywood career === Around 1920, he headed out to Hollywood alone to seek work as an actor. He also worked as a physiotherapist at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, where he met Rudolph Valentino.<ref name=JCrawford>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxBKDgAAQBAJ&dq=joan+crawford+mario+carillo&pg=PT21|title=Joan Crawford: Hollywood Martyr|last=Bret|first=David|date=15 April 2009|publisher=Hachette Books|isbn=978-0-7867-3236-4|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Bogdanovich, Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F7Yio3CPAM8C&dq=actor+mario+carillo&pg=PA41|title=John Ford|page=41|publisher=University of California Press|date=28 June 1978|isbn=9780520034983|access-date=30 August 2022}}</ref> He also had a fling with a young actress named Lucille LeSueur (better by the stage name she took on later, Joan Crawford).<ref name=JCrawford/> Over the course of the decade, he appeared in several dozen films before returning to Italy with the aim of starting his own production company<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/385471751/?terms=%22mario+caracciolo%22|title=Duce Gives High Post to Hollywood Ex-Actor|last=|first=|date=12 Jan 1940|website=The Los Angeles Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-11-27}}</ref> (it does not appear that he was successful in this endeavor).
=== Later life === Mario died in Rome, Italy, on 3 December 1958; he was survived by his wife.<ref name=Genmarenostrum/>
There appears to be a case of mistaken identity at the heart of stories in the press that he was the Mario Caracciolo who was given supreme command of the Italian army's technical service by Mussolini during World War II.<ref name=":0" /> This man's full name appears to have been named Mario Caracciolo di Feroleto; the two were around the same age. thumb|Bigger and Better Blondes (1927)
== Partial filmography == {{div col}} * ''A Stage Romance'' (1922) * ''The Snitching Hour'' (1922) * ''Slim Shoulders'' (1922) * ''Queen of the Moulin Rouge'' (1922) * ''The Prisoner'' (1923) * ''The Remittance Woman'' (1923) * ''Rosita'' (1923) * ''The Song of Love'' (1923) * ''Stepping Lively'' (1924) * ''His Hour'' (1924) * ''Eve's Secret'' (1925) * ''Déclassé'' (1925) * ''Lost: A Wife'' (1925) * ''Her Sister from Paris'' (1925) * ''The Eagle'' (1925) * ''The Only Thing'' (1925) * ''The Lure of the Wild'' (1925) * ''Dance Madness'' (1926) * ''The Girl from Montmartre'' (1926) * ''Torrent'' (1926) * ''The Barrier'' (1926) * ''Don Juan's 3 Nights'' (1926) * ''Diplomacy'' (1926) * ''Perch of the Devil'' (1927) * ''Evening Clothes'' (1927) * ''Venus of Venice'' (1927) * ''Bigger and Better Blondes'' (1927) * ''Time to Love'' (1927) * ''Ladies Beware'' (1927) * ''The Private Life of Helen of Troy'' (1927) * ''His Tiger Wife'' (1928) * ''How to Handle Women'' (1928) * ''Hot News'' (1928) * ''Just Married'' (1928) {{div col end}}
== References== <references />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carillo, Mario}} Category:1883 births Category:1953 deaths Category:Counts in Italy Category:Italian male film actors Category:Italian male silent film actors Category:20th-century Italian male actors Category:Male actors from Naples Category:Italian expatriates in the United States Category:House of Caracciolo