JOE DALLESANDRO Wet Dreams Hero
‘Andy Warhol made him famous. The underground made him a sexual icon. His body made him a legend.’ That’s the logline of ‘Little Joe’, a 2009 independent documentary about Joe Dallesandro, whose 40-year-old career unrolls on the big screen. Throughout the years, a lot of references have been made about him. Andy Warhol used to claim that: ‘In my movies everyone is in love with Joe Dallesandro.’ New York Times film critic, Vincent Canby, commented on his appearance as soon as the movie ‘Flesh’ was out by writing that: ‘His physique is so magnificent that men, as well as women, become disconnected at the sight of him.’ Director John Waters praised him as: ‘A wonderful actor who forever changed male sexuality on the screen’, whereas world famous photographer Francesco Scavullo stated that Joe Dallesandro was one of the 10 most beautiful men he had ever photographed.
But who is actually ‘this naked guy in those Andy Warhol films’ as most people tend to remember him? Joe, born in Florida, was the son of two teenage Americans who got divorced soon after their marriage. He and his brother Bobby moved to New York with their father as his mother was imprisoned for car theft. His father also proved unable to raise them on his own, and so both children were placed to foster families. Young Joe was a trouble maker at school and a petty criminal himself. At the age of fifteen he was sentenced to a juvenile rehabilitation centre for driving a stolen vehicle. There, he was adorned with his renowned trademark tattoo, ‘Little Joe’, and three months later he managed to escape. He travelled to Mexico and L.A. and soon realised that he could use his breathtaking looks to make money. Nude modelling earned him some but the age of 18 finds him in New York, unhappily married to his first wife, Leslie. One morning, in 1967, he accidentally walks into the shootings of Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey’s The Loves of the Ondines and the two artists discover their muse. In the beginning, Joe took part in Warhol’s San Diego Surf (1968) and Lonesome Cowboys (1969) but it was Morrissey’s widely acclaimed Trilogy that brought the underground to the cultural surface and established Dallesandro as the first eroticised male sex symbol on screen and as a modern Valentino representing a liberating icon for his female and gay fans. Flesh (1968), Trash (1970) and Heat (1972) received smashing reviews and are still considered as cult masterpieces. Joe became undoubtedly a superstar at that time and continued to shoot Warhol and Morrissey’s films. Flesh for Frankenstein (1974) and Blood for Dracula (1974) came along but soon Joe was tired by the two directors’ pressure, his multi task services to the Factory - he often had to work as a security guard, a receptionist or a bellboy – and his fatherhood and husband obligations – he was married to his second wife, Terry, already and they had a baby son named Joe Junior. In 1974 Dallesandro moved to Europe and took part in various feature films. Despite other world famous co-protagonists – Anita Ekberg was his partner in the Italian splatter film Suor Omicidi (1978) – most of them were unsuccessful and did not earn him the fame and popularity he had received back in New York. Nevertheless, during his European movie era Joe played in the movie that was to become his most beloved. Serge Gainsbourg’s Je t’aime moi non plus (1975) is an exceptional French cult film due to Gainsbourg’s poetic film language, Joe Dallesandro and Jane Birkin’s acting performances as well as their matching and incredible looks. In the 1980’s Joe returns to the United States where he holds minor but really distinctive roles in a series of well-known movies. Francis Ford Coppola’s Cotton Club (1984), Blake Edwards’ Sunset (1988) John Waters’ Cry Baby (1990) and Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey (1999) are some of the highlighted films that brought him to the dusk of the 20th century.
Throughout the years Joe’s personal life had not been easy. He had to cope with drinking and drug issues, unsuccessful marriages and perplexed affairs. Yet, he remained in the spotlight not only through his acting but also as a model for top photographers such as Francesco Scavullo, Jack Robinson and Richard Avedon. In 1972 Lou Reed portrays him as the hustler ‘Little Joe’ in his song ‘Take a walk on the Wild side’ and Ian Curtis mentions ‘Little Joe’ in one of his poems. Dallesandro’s large crotch bulge adorns Rolling Stone’s album cover ‘Sticky Fingers’ and in 1984 the Smiths use a photo of him as a cover for their debut album. In 1987 David Bowie holds a role for him in his music video ‘Never let me down’ and most recently Sacha Baron Cohen will present his film character ‘Bruno’ being photographed naked with his son in his arms as Joe had originally done for Rolling Stone magazine in 1971. Joe Dallesandro is alive and kicking for anyone out there wondering what has happened of him and his impact in film, art and even fashion industry remains intact up to today. An on line store sells ‘Little Joe’ T–Shirts emblazoned with an exact large image of his popular tattoo and they sell like hot cakes (www. littlejoe.bigcartel.com). Last June the National Portrait Gallery in London held a Gay Icons exhibition, where Dallesandro’s captures where among its prominent exhibits. Furthermore, last February Joe Dallesandro received the Teddy award in the 59th Berlinale Film Festival. This special award is given for more than 20 years to filmakers and artists that promote and contribute to the recognition of the LGBT lifestyle and culture. Pedro Almodovar, Francois Ozon, Gus Van Sant, Derek Jarman and Tilda Swinton are in the list of the most recent Teddy Award winners. Joe has become a literature star, as well. Michael Ferguson’s book ‘Little Joe, Superstar: The Films of Joe Dallesandro’ gives a detailed account of the actor’s life and career who originated as ‘a sweet, shy, deliriously sexy cipher whose unflappable calm provided its own kind of campy counterpoint to Warhol’s shrieking harridans and maniacal drag queens’. A few years ago his daughter, Vedra , decided to assemble a group of filmakers such as the German director, Nicole Haeusser, and the animator, Todd Fjeldsted, to help her tell her dad’s story. The documentary ‘Little Joe’ was released in 2009 and attempts to reflect ‘Joe’s humour and spirituality with a mixture of wonderful animation, a vast amount of film footage and numerous stills’ as Haeusser notes down. Joe Dallesandro has definitely changed the way that men and women have perceived male beauty ever since his appearance on the big screen. His divine, statue-like body and awestruck facial features depicted in portrait photos and films of his Factory years still make people drool. Nevertheless, Joe’s lifetime story is not a fairy tale and his upheaval to New York’s underground scene was not paved with roses. Ferguson’s book and Haeusser’s documentary spot plenty of light in the enigma called ‘Little Joe’. They constitute an additional proof that Joe Dallesandro was not just a star of the Warholian system but actually an authentic pop-art icon and a charismatic ‘true life’ hero, indeed.
›› joedallesandro.com /26
Text: Kika Kyriakakou / Photo: c.Paul Morrissey from the films Flesh, Trash and Heat