I hope you guys don't mind me posting another review of the biographical book. The book will take so long to get here, I need to get my fix from somewhere, lol!

Here's a more balanced review that I found interesting as there are details here not found in the one above:

The Telegraph Review

The title of the review is - For fear of pink powder puffs - and it seems appropriate as Valentino was hounded by it, regaled against it, and was very much affected by such accusations. He even called out one of his critics in a duel - in the boxing ring.

"Rudy couldn't see, and he refused to wear glasses. Myopia - not passion." As Emily W Leider makes clear in her biography of the first Hollywood male sex symbol, the hypnotic force of Rudolph Valentino's gaze was the source of his massive appeal for female cinema-goers. No one in 1920s America had seen a man smoulder on screen with such dramatic intensity. Film critics compared him to the basilisk, a mythic reptile capable of slaying foes with its eyes. But the friends quoted by Leider swore that this capacity for mesmerising audiences was due to nothing more than a squint. Leider's careful calculation of the elements that made up Valentino's sex appeal results in a sober and poignant study of a man driven by insecurities and sadness.

I never knew Valentino had myopia, or poor vision. And this intensity linked to his myopia reminds me very much of Christopher Lambert who is now legally blind and known for his intense gaze linked to his myopia.

Christopher Lambert btw is the actor who portrayed Connor MacLeod in the Highlander films.

Christopher Lambert's IMDB Trivia Section:

The patented, intense gaze he often shows in his roles is the result of myopia at an early age.

"I became to myself an imaginary figure of great excellence, daring and glamour," he later told a fan magazine. The reality of his adolescent state was less appealing: he was skinny with pointed ears, and when he was rejected by a naval academy because his chest measurement fell short by 2cm, he was devastated. A sense of shame played a large part in his development; shame at his educational failure, shame that he was not manly enough for a military career.

he arrived in New York, where he took a job as a taxi-dancer; in effect, being hired by women to lead them round the dance floor. This was another source of shame. And then there was the stigma of being dark. Men were suspicious of this "oily Latin cad's" effect on women. He had to leave New York after being arrested in a brothel, and was thereafter associated with white slavery and dubious morals. For the rest of his life, Valentino worried that he had failed to win the approval of his male peers. But there was an upside: partnering so many women on the dance floor schooled him in how to attune himself to "feminine signals".

It is this complex eroticism that gives Valentino his enduring fame. But his success on the screen was compromised by an unfulfilling private life. Ultimately, he was too sensitive for the ruthless competition generated by Hollywood casting directors. He found The Sheik demeaning not just to himself but to Arabs, too. A review that characterised him as a "pink powder puff" was a further insult to his pride. Leider triumphs in locating the fretful man behind the star who redefined notions of masculinity. He died, aged 31, of peritonitis. His last recorded words, after coming round from surgery, were: "Did I behave like a pink powder puff or like a man?"

It seems like the critics have somehow touched upon the very things that hounded his insecurities and vulnerabilities. Coming from a macho Italian culture, the blemish and criticisms of his manhood compounded by rumors of his gigolo days as a dancer and inability to join the military 2x due to not meeting the physical standard.

I had read that Valentino despite having a vast library, didn't really read except for books on health and exercise and he even released a book on it:

How You Can Keep Fit By RUDOLPH VALENTINO

And upon reading this review, it makes sense that he would obsess over his physicality as a man and try to over compensate by exercising or improving upon it. And he was rather fit actually, lol! Especially in a time when actors were not as defined or toned as Valentino was.

Valentino posing in an exercise squat

Valentino in swimming attire

I didn't know about the myopia. Did he wear glasses when not in public?

IDK, but based on the few things I've read about him, he didn't wear glasses. Perhaps he associated it with weakness? Or maybe a vanity?

But wouldn't his eyesight get worse if he didn't wear glasses? The only one I know that has it is Lambert, and he's legally blind. While filming the first Highlander, he almost hurt whoever he was fighting multiple times because he had such a poor eyesight and couldn't wear contact lenses. He had to memorize his movements based on his actions and exactness, and couldn't rely much on sight.