Captain Lou Albano dies at 76; wrestler appeared in Cyndi Lauper videos

Captain Lou Albano, who became one of the most recognized professional wrestlers of the 1980s after appearing in Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” music video, died Wednesday. He was 76.

Albano, whose real name was Louis Vincent Albano, died of natural causes in Westchester County in suburban New York, said Dawn Marie, founder of Wrestlers Rescue, an organization that helps raise money for the healthcare of retired wrestlers.

World Wrestling Entertainment called him one of the company’s “most popular and charismatic legends.”

With his trademark Hawaiian shirts, wiry goatee and rubber bands hung like piercings from his cheek, Albano was an outsize personality who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, was known as much for his showmanship as for his ring talent.

His fame skyrocketed when he appeared in Lauper’s 1983 music video, playing a scruffy, overbearing father in a white tank top who gets shoved against a wall by the singer.

Partly because of the success of Albano’s partnership with Lauper, the entity then known as the World Wrestling Federation forged ties with the music industry. That helped bring it to a wider national audience in the mid-1980s, known as the “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling” era.

It was a time when wrestlers such as Albano, Hulk Hogan, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant were so popular that they could headline TV cartoon series and appear in movies. Albano later had a role in the music video for Lauper’s 1984 song “Time After Time,” and he appeared in episodes of the TV series “Miami Vice” and in the 1986 movie “Body Slam.” He played Mario in “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show,” a live-action animated show, from 1989 to 1991.

Albano was born July 29, 1933, in Rome. After moving to the United States, his family settled in Mount Vernon, N.Y. His career in the ring began in 1953 in Canada. He retired from the WWE in 1996.

Survivors include his wife, Geri; four children; and 14 grandchildren.

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