Mario Lanza (January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an Italian American tenor and Hollywood movie star who enjoyed success in the late 1940s and 1950s.
His lirico spinto tenor voice was considered by his admirers to rival that of Enrico Caruso, whom Lanza portrayed in the 1951 film The Great Caruso. Compared with Caruso, however, his operatic career was negligible. Lanza sang a wide variety of music throughout his career, ranging from operatic a...
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Mario Lanza (January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an Italian American tenor and Hollywood movie star who enjoyed success in the late 1940s and 1950s.
His lirico spinto tenor voice was considered by his admirers to rival that of Enrico Caruso, whom Lanza portrayed in the 1951 film The Great Caruso. Compared with Caruso, however, his operatic career was negligible. Lanza sang a wide variety of music throughout his career, ranging from operatic arias to the popular songs of the day. While his highly emotional style was not universally praised by critics, he was immensely popular and his many recordings are still prized today. He died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 38 and was entombed in Holy Cross Cemetery.
Born Alfred Arnold Cocozza in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was exposed to opera and singing at a young age by his Abruzzese-Molisan Italian immigrant parents, and by the age of 16 his vocal talent had become apparent. Starting out in local operatic productions in...
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