Captain Lou Albano - Often Imitated, Never Duplicated

I was never what you might call a wrestling fan. I'd never watched a match until I met my ex-husband and then I wanted to roll on the floor. My ex, Steve, and his friends would get together to watch this nonsense and for them it was genuine entertainment. It didn't take long for me to realize that at least one of his friends believed the crazy bios that these guys gave themselves. For him, the Grave digger really did dig graves and the Russian Bear was really from Russia. Steve didn't believe that it was real but for him the male bonding of sitting on the sofa Sunday mornings, beer in hand, with his friends, high-fiving over "brilliant maneuvers" was something he just loved.

It was back in that environment I found out about Captain Lou. He was the manager of over 50 different wrestlers.

During the 1980s, Albano appeared in Cyndi Lauper's music videos for her hit songs "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "She Bop", and "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" Even now women young and old still love "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and I can relate to the gruff Dad angry at his daughter who was out partying all night.

Albano began appearing in a vast array of television and film projects. Throughout the late eighties, Albano appeared in Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, 227, Miami Vice, Hey Dude, Brian De Palma's Wiseguys and the 1987 wrestling movie Body Slam. Expanding into music, Albano managed and performed with rockers NRBQ. He was immortalized in the song "Captain Lou" on their Lou and the Q album. Albano also periodically appeared on the John Davidson version of Hollywood Squares.

This was one of my favorite NRBQ songs and the album was the only one of theirs I ever bought and I bought it just for that song.

Albano died on October 14, 2009, under hospice care at his home. How sad. He was such a character and he obviously lived his life outloud.

Louis Vincent Albano (July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009)