Joe Dallesandro

Early modeling career

In 1965, Dallessandro made his way to the West Coast with a friend and briefly worked at a pizza shop.^[4] When Dallesandro was looking for a job, someone recommended modeling.^[8] He was unaware that they meant nude modeling, but at the age of 16, he ended up supporting himself by modeling for Bob Mizer's Athletic Model Guild and Bruce Bellas (Bruce of Los Angeles).^[9][8][10] Mizer later stated that Dallesandro gave his age as 19 when he posed for him.^[11] In one sitting, Mizer took a short 8mm film and 86 photographs, some of which were published in Physique Pictorial's September 1967, January 1967, and July 1975 issues.^[10] The photos Bellas took were published in The Male Figure.^[10]

New York and the Factory years

By 1967, Dallessandro had returned to New York. He was married at the age of eighteen, and he was hustling around Times Square to pay for his drug habit.^[12] He also worked as a bookbinder.^[13]

He met Pop artist Andy Warhol and film director Paul Morrissey while they were shooting Four Stars (1967) in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.^[14] After accompanying a friend to observe the filming, he was cast in the project on the spot.^[13] His segment in Four Stars was later included in the film The Loves of Ondine (1968).^[15] Dallesandro began doing odd jobs at the Factory as Warhol's bodyguard and sometime actor.^[12][16]

Dallesandro starred in Lonesome Cowboys (1968), which was filmed in Arizona and then filmed San Diego Surf (2012) in California.^[17] While Warhol was recuperating from an assassination attempt in the summer of 1968, Dallesandro filmed Flesh (1968), a story of a male hustler—based on Dallesandro's experience—where he had several nude scenes. Appealing to male and female audience members, Dallesandro was the "first overtly sexualized male in the movies."^[18] Flesh, directed by Paul Morrissey, became a crossover hit with mainstream audiences, and Dallesandro became the most popular of the Warhol stars. Warhol would later comment, "In my movies, everyone's in love with Joe Dallesandro."^[19]

In 1969, Dallesandro was cast in the MGM film The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970).^[17] Warhol was reportedly planning his commercial film debut in the production, alongside his superstars Ultra Violet and Gerard Malanga, with Dallesandro cast as Stanley's friend.^[20] However, Dallesandro was dismissed on the first day of filming.^[21] Ultimately, no other members of the Factory appeared in the film, except for Candy Darling in a brief scene.^[21]

The Warhol and Morrissey films did not usually have a script, so the actors improvised while the cameras were rolling.^[16] In 1970, Dallesandro told After Dark: "Sometimes they yell at me and say, 'Joe, you're really messing it up. Stop trying to act,' and then I usually do a good job. But if you watch carefully you'll see that my best performing comes when I have my clothes off. When I'm dressed, I really don't give very good performances, but when I am not, I really do a great job."^[16]

By 1970, Dallesandro earned a salary of $124 a week.^[4] After starring in Trash (1970), his underground fame began to cross over into the popular culture and he was viewed as a sex symbol.^[16] 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."^[22] Newsday film critic Jerry Parker wrote that "Joe Dallesandro, who is a mere 21 is to Andy Warhol what Clark Gable once was to Louis B. Mayer."^[4] Dallesandro 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.^[10]

According to Dallesandro, Francis Ford Coppola wanted him to screen test for the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972), however, the offer fell through.^[12] Dallesandro believed that Warhol and Morrissey deterred Coppola's entourage by telling them that Dallesandro was a drug addict and couldn't handle the script, but Morrissey stated that isn't true.^[12][23] Morrissey added that he and Warhol would have been thrilled if Dallesandro landed a role in a major film.^[23]

Dallesandro also starred in the films Heat (1972), Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (1973), and Andy Warhol's Dracula (1974), directed by Morrissey. The latter two were filmed in Rome. Morrissey recommended that Dallesandro get an agent to find more work in Europe.^[23]

European exploitation films and decline

After filming was complete, Dallesandro remained in Europe and capitalized on his reputation as a cult figure in a series of exploitation films in France and Italy.^[12][24] He appeared in Serge Gainsbourg's Je t'aime moi non-plus (1976), which starred Gainsbourg's girlfriend, British actress Jane Birkin.

Dalessandro's career collapsed in the late 1970s as a result of his dependency on alcohol and drugs.^[25] After his return to the U.S. in 1979, he resided in a trailer park close to Seattle with his estranged mother and indulged in excessive drinking.^[12] He relocated to Los Angeles in 1981, checked himself into a detox center, joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and worked as a limousine and taxi driver before returning to acting.^[25][12]

Mainstream career

Dallesandro 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 the films 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.

Dallesandro also appeared in several television shows. In 1986, he co-starred in the ABC drama series Fortune Dane. The series lasted only five episodes. He was also a regular for the first season (1987-1988) of the CBS crime drama series Wiseguy, and he appeared in three episodes of NBC's Miami Vice, and a two-hour episode of ABC's Matlock in 1990.^[26]

In 1995, Dallesandro appeared in a Calvin Klein ad campaign with model Kate Moss.^[27]

A biography, Little Joe: Superstar by Michael Ferguson was published in 1998, 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]}

Semi-retired from acting as of 2009, Dallesandro managed a residential hotel building in Los Angeles.^[28]

He appeared in the Dandy Warhols' official video for "You Are Killing Me" in 2016.^[29]

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.^[30]

Sexuality

Although Dallesandro primarily had romantic relationships with women, he identifies as bisexual.^[31] He explained, "I consider myself bisexual. It wasn't that I was sexually attracted to men per se, but you know, if you do something for a while you can acquire a taste for it."^[32] Reflecting on his early experiences, he said his introduction to the gay world "saved me from life in prison for murder… It gave me a whole other attitude, a calmer attitude" and taught him to "never to be homophobic, even before there was such a term."^[32] He cited musicians David Bowie and Mick Jagger as heroes, noting, "a man could say he liked both, that he appreciated both the look of a man and the look of a woman without being stereotyped."^[32]

Family and relationships

Dallesandro's younger brother Robert "Bobby" Dallesandro died in 1977.^[12] He had worked for Warhol as a chauffeur, and also appeared in the films Flesh (1968) and Trash (1970).^[16][33]

After being separated since childhood, at the age of 21, Dallesandro was reunited with his mother Sandy Hoyt in 1970.^[3] That summer, she learned through a phone call from Pensacola that he had located the family via the chamber of commerce and left contact information.^[3] Later that October, Dallesandro and his brother visited her in Sacramento.^[3]

Dallesandro has been married three times, and has two children.^[34] In 1967, at age 18, he married his first wife, Leslie, the daughter of his father's girlfriend. Their son, Michael, was born on December 19, 1968. The marriage was dissolved in 1969.^[4]

He met his second wife Theresa ("Terry") in the East Village, and they married in 1970.^[4] Their son, Joseph A. Dallesandro, Jr., was born November 14, 1970. They divorced in 1978.^[12]

While in Europe, Dallesandro was romantically involved with Italian actress Stefania Casini in the mid-1970s.^[35] She appeared as his love interest in film Blood for Dracula (1974).^[35]

In 1987, Dallesandro was married a third time, to Kimberly ("Kim").^{[citation needed]} Dallesandro has a grandson and a granddaughter by his son Michael, and a grandson by his son Joseph.^[36]