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Albano recalled as a showman

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The Associated Press

Published: October 16, 2009

NEW YORK - "Captain" Lou Albano, 76, 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 in Westchester County, N.Y.

The World Wrestling Entertainment called Albano, whose real name was Louis Vincent Albano, 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 talent in the ring.

His fame skyrocketed when he appeared in Lauper's landmark 1983 music video.

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.

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