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Ruggiero Eugenio di Rodolfo Colombo (January 14, 1908 – September 2, 1934), known as Russ Columbo, was an American baritone, songwriter, violinist, and actor. He is famous for romantic ballads such as his signature tune "You Call It Madness, But I Call It Love" and his own compositions "Prisoner of Love" and "Too Beautiful for Words".
Columbo ran a nightclub for a while, the Club Pyramid, but gave it up when his manager told him he had star potential. In 1931, he traveled to New York City with his manager, songwriter Con Conrad, who secured a late-night radio slot with NBC. This led to numerous engagements, a recording contract with RCA Victor records, and tremendous popularity with legions of mostly female fans. Not long after arriving in New York, Columbo met actress Dorothy Dell at an audition for the Ziegfeld Follies and began seeing her. Conrad did his best to break the relationship up with a series of publicity-created "ruse romances" involving Columbo and actresses such as Greta Garbo and Pola Negri; it succeeded. (Dorothy Dell died in an auto accident in June 1934—just months before Columbo's own fatal accident.)
The type of singing that was popularized by the likes of Columbo, Rudy Vallee, and Bing Crosby is called crooning. Columbo disliked the label, but it caught on with the general public. It gained popular credence, despite its initial use as a term of derision for the singers employing their low, soothing voices in romantic love songs. Similarly, to reinforce his romantic appeal, he was called "Radio's Valentino".
Columbo composed the songs "Prisoner of Love" and "You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love)" with Con Conrad, Gladys Du Bois, and Paul Gregory; "Too Beautiful For Words", recorded by the Teddy Joyce Orchestra in 1935; "When You're in Love", "My Love", and "Let's Pretend There's a Moon", recorded by Fats Waller and Tab Hunter; and "Hello Sister". "Prisoner of Love" is a standard that has been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford, Art Tatum, Perry Como, the Ink Spots, Mildred Bailey, Tiny Tim, Teddy Wilson with Lena Horne on vocals, Bing Crosby, Billy Eckstine, and James Brown. Perry Como had a number-one hit on Billboard with his recording. James Brown had a top-20 pop hit and performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show and in the concert movie The T.A.M.I. Show (1964).
I was absent-mindedly fooling around with one of the guns. It was of a dueling design and works with a cap and trigger. I was pulling back the trigger and clicking it time after time. I had a match in my hand and when I clicked, apparently the match caught in between the hammer and the firing pin. There was an explosion. Russ slid to the side of his chair.
The ball ricocheted off a nearby table and hit Columbo above the left eye. Surgeons at Good Samaritan Hospital made an unsuccessful attempt to remove the ball from Columbo's brain; he died less than six hours after the shooting. Columbo's death was ruled an accident and Brown was exonerated from blame. His funeral Mass was attended by numerous Hollywood actors, including Bing Crosby and Carole Lombard, who was to have had dinner with Columbo the evening of the accident and who was romantically involved with him.
Columbo's mother was hospitalized in serious condition from a heart attack at the time of the accident; the news was withheld from her by his brothers and sisters for the remaining 10 years of her life. Owing to her previous heart condition, it was feared that the news would prove fatal to her (she died in 1944). They used all manner of subterfuge to give the impression that Columbo was still alive, including faked letters from him and records used to simulate his radio program.
Columbo is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Actress Virginia Brissac was serving as Columbo's private secretary at the time of his death and was later called upon by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office to testify and identify Columbo's remains at the subsequent inquest.
Biographical novel and audiobook, Two Lovers by Beverly Adam, the true love story of Carole Lombard and Russ Columbo.
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