All Photos: Alan Mercer
Joe Dallesandro is an iconic sex symbol, actor and Andy Warhol Superstar. Although he never became a mainstream film star, Joe is generally considered to be the most famous male sex symbol of American underground films of the 20th century.
Joe starred in 'Flesh' as a teenage street hustler. In 1970 'Rolling Stone' magazine declared 'Flesh' the "Best Film of the Year", making him a star of the youth culture, sexual revolution and subcultural New York art collective of the 1970's.
Many of you will know the photograph taken by Andy Warhol, of his crotch in a tight-fitting pair of jeans and featured on the cover of the Rolling Stones 1971 album, 'Sticky Fingers.'
He was born in Pensacola, Florida. His father, Joseph Angelo D'Allesandro II, was an Italian-American sailor, and his mother was 16-year-old Thelma Testman. By the time Joe was five, his mother was serving five years in a Federal Penitentiary for interstate auto theft. His parents divorced soon afterward.
Joe and his brother, Bobby, were taken to New York with their father, who worked as an electrical engineer. Both boys were eventually placed into the Angel Guardian Home in Harlem, prior to being fostered by a couple in Brooklyn. The senior Dallesandro would visit them about once a month at their foster parents' home.
Joe attended a Catholic school until second grade. He and his brother lived with the family until they ran away and were removed from the family by social services. At the age of 14 Joe and his brother moved to Queens to live with their paternal grandparents. He was kicked out of school for punching the principal, who had insulted his father.
As a teenager, Joe supported himself by prostitution and later nude modeling, appearing most notably in short films and magazine photos for Bob Mizer's Athletic Model Guild. In a later interview, Joe said: "My hustling days were more about trying to take care of myself. Having met those people kind of calmed me down. They showed me a different part of life. My attitude was that it widened my life experience... I realized later that I was looking for a father figure and someone to love me."
Joe met Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey in 1967 while they were shooting 'Four Stars,' and they cast him in the film on the spot. Warhol would later comment "In my movies, everyone's in love with Joe Dallesandro."
Joe played a hustler in his third Warhol film, 'Flesh' in1968, where he had several nude scenes. 'Flesh' became a crossover hit with mainstream audiences, and Joe Dallesandro became the most popular of the Warhol stars. 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."
As Joe's underground fame began to cross over into the popular culture, he graced the cover of Rolling Stone in April 1971. He was also photographed by some of the top celebrity photographers of the time: Francesco Scavullo, Jack Robinson and Richard Avedon.
Dallesandro also appeared in 'Lonesome Cowboys' in 1968, 'Trash' in 1970, 'Heat' in 1972, a sardonic re-imagining of Sunset Boulevard with Sylvia Miles, 'Andy Warhol's Frankenstein' and 'Andy Warhol's Dracula' both in 1974 also directed by Morrissey. These last two films were shot in Europe, and, after the films were completed, Joe chose not to return to the U.S. He continued to star in films made mainly in France and Italy for the rest of the decade, returning to America in the 1980s.
He made several movies without Warhol and Morrissey, and is known for his portrayal of 1920's gangster Lucky Luciano in Francis Coppola's The Cotton Club. His career enjoyed a resurgence, appearing in major motion pictures in Steven Soderbergh's 'The Limey' as a religious zealot in John Waters' 'Cry-Baby', 'Sunset' with Bruce Willis and James Garner, 'Critical Condition' with Richard Pryor, 'Gun Crazy' with Drew Barrymore, and many tv series with multiple appearances on 'Wiseguy', 'Miami Vice' and 'Matlock.'
Joe Dallesandro has a famous "jailhouse" style tattoo on his upper right arm that reads "Little Joe", and was portrayed as the hustler "Little Joe" in Lou Reed's hit 1972 song 'Walk on the Wild Side', which was about the characters Reed knew from Warhol's studio, The Factory.
My darling friend Leila Koral suggested Joe for this blog and I am so happy she did. He is without a doubt an icon and living legend. I had the opportunity to take a few shots of him in the courtyard of the hotel in Hollywood he now manages with his wife Kimberly, who is an accomplished writer and artist herself. Joe has always been a role model in the sense that he is cool. Like Brando and Dean he sizzles and simmers with raw sexuality and like Bogart or McQueen, he is the personification of nonchalance and the eternally hip "anti-drama queen." After our photo session I sat down with Joe the person and got to know him a little better.
AM: Joe, you've done so much movie work! Are you interested in making more films?
JD: Not really, not anymore. I would do something if I could shine in it, but not just to work.
AM: I also get the feeling that you don't have a lot of interest in your past.
JD: Not too much, no. I'm to busy living in the now.
AM: You come from this mythic past with Andy Warhol, but you never got caught up in it...
JD: No...and whenever I'd do interviews I always told the truth unless I told the writers to make it up and then they may embellish something or add an extra marriage for my father or something like that. Nothing that really phased me much.
AM: Have you noticed an increase in your popularity since you got on-line?
JD: Not so much an increase but now I'm more interactive with the fans who want to talk to me.
AM: Do you enjoy it?
JD: Yeah it's fun.
AM: Can you tell me a little about this documentary that was recently made about you?
JD: I got a little upset because I asked for certain things to be cut out of the film entirely and they were just shifted around. The people that made it with me were close and they knew that I'd never watch myself in this.
AM: Why not?
JD: It was hard enough just talking at length about different stories. They knew I wasn't going to sit down and watch the whole thing. That would bore me to tears.
AM: But you have seen it?
JD: I watched it once and never again. But when I asked for something to be cut I assumed it was going to be done. When I found out later on they had just moved it to a different spot....that upset me. Then Paul Morrissey got really upset by a couple of things I said in the movie. I don't need to be upset and have Paul upset and go on with this documentary. If everybody's upset then let's just shove it. It's done. We had a couple of screenings in some festivals and that was enough.
AM: Will it ever be made available?
JD: No...but it could change. I'm getting ready to have a discussion with Paul about things that were supposed to happen over the years but never happened. If he doesn't behave the way he's supposed to then it's time for me to go and do what I feel like doing.
AM: Do you like receiving a lot of attention?
JD: Everybody does...to a point. I don't like my personal life interfered with. If I'm sitting down to dinner I don't want anyone coming over and interrupting me mid-bite telling me how much they are a fan.
AM: It's never gotten old for you?
JD: No I've always had a great relationship with the people.
AM: People really 'LOVE YOU,' love you.
JD: I know. I know!
AM: You're an icon. Did you ever imagine this?
JD: No. I always understood when Paul Morrissey used to tell me that the films I was making would be around forever. I understood that because of Andy's involvement with it. Most of the people that got to see these films are older than me now.
AM: Did you make money working in them?
JD: See that's the problem now. I have five percent of Andy and Paul's share and now all the films have reverted back to Paul. Whatever they got, five percent was supposed to be mine. Then when I went off to work in Europe for ten years Paul never put anything aside and said this is for Joe. Remember his big successes were the films he made with me.
AM: Well I hope that gets worked out to your satisfaction.
JD: It would be nice.
AM: Well life in 2011 has you living and running this hotel in Hollywood.
JD: When I first moved in I was only going to be here for a month then I realized I was paying very little for rent and I thought I don't need to work again. With what I make on residuals I could live here. So the month turned into a long time.
AM: How did you end up running it?
JD: They kept getting managers that didn't really care about the building. It was starting to decay and we had terrible people moving in. Nothing ever got fixed in the building. Nobody cared so when they were looking for a manager I said I'd love to do it. I've been running it for eight years now.
AM: Is it in your heart?
JD: Oh yeah. I love doing it and I love taking care of the older people here. It's not in my duties to do that, but I enjoy it.
AM: How do you relax?
JD: Science fiction and cartoons. I love to escape.
AM: Any specific cartoons?
JD: I love them all. I love all the movie cartoons and I watch them over and over like a child. I love 'Shrek.' I love all the new ones that are out.
AM: Have you always liked cartoons?
JD: Yeah.
AM: Have you ever made a science fiction film?
JD: No, I never did. There's always a possibility that something might come up. I would love to do something like that or even some kind of children's movie. Something completely different than anything I've ever done.
AM: That would be great.
JD: I like children and they like me because when they are around I become a child like them.
AM: Are you more child-like now or have you always been this way?
JD: I think I'm this way more now then back when I should have had one.
AM: Do you think that's why you are enjoying a childhood now because you missed it back then?
JD: That's a good possibility. I had to grow up real early. I thought of myself as an adult at a very early age. I ran on a lot of wrong information for many years. Now I have fun with my older age.
AM: Aren't you glad you are here at this time to have fun?
JD: I'm so happy...yes! You know the mention with my problem with Paul is not a big deal. If nothing ever comes of it, I'm not chasing him down.
AM: So you genuinely liked those people you worked with?
JD: I never had a bad word to say about them. I had no designs on being an actor. I never chased it. It was Paul Morrissey who pointed me in that direction. He directed me on where to go with my career. He even brought me to Europe so that I could go over there and come back as Clint Eastwood.
AM: You did have an amazing ten year run in Italy making films. Was film-making different over there?
JD: No, they did have some big budget films going on but I never got to participate in any of those. I worked on a bunch of smaller 'shoot em' up' style pictures that we shot like they do television here.
AM: Are the fans different in Europe?
JD: Oh yeah.
AM: Were they aware of your work with Paul Morrissey?
JD: Not in Italy. That's what was so great about it. My films were banned for many years. I remember when Paul was trying to sell them over there they told him they didn't have an audience for them because this kind of stuff doesn't happen in Italy. This was the movie called 'Flesh.' I thought it all began there! (laughing)
AM: Did you ever suspect you'd be a sex symbol?
JD: It's not something that I tried to do. I've never said that. It's always other people who tell me who I am.
AM: I find it interesting that culturally speaking you are as big today as you've ever been.
JD: There were years that I was better known. When I used to walk around New York people would recognize me all day long. I always had posters all through the city.
AM: Were you able to be out in public?
JD: Yes because I always said it was my brother. He's much bigger than I am but we looked very much alike.
AM: How does it feel to see all these images from when you were so young? Are you proud and loving it?
JD: Oh yeah, but a lot of photographs taken of me always looked so much better than what I really looked like.
AM: Well that's what a good photograph does. You have some amazing photographs of yourself.
JD: Over the years yeah. It was nothing that I did. I never saw myself the way other people did. Paul worked on me a great deal to help me not get a big ego or believe everything people were saying about me. He always said, "If you believe the good stuff you gotta believe the bad stuff too."
AM: Last question...what are you going to do with the rest of your day?
JD: Today is my day off so I'm going back to my room and spend as much time as I can watching my cartoons. (giggles)
Joe with his wife Kimberly
To learn more about Joe Dallesandro check out his web site http://www.joedallesandro.com/
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