Dan Vadis
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Dan Vadis was born Constantine Daniel Vafiadis in Shanghai, China on January 3, 1938. This former U.S. Navy sailor and member of the Mae West Muscleman Revue in the late 1950s, a brawny, durable 6'4" man with curly brown hair, bluish green eyes and an affable demeanor, was just one of many muscle men to take a stab at fame and fortune with the Italian sword and sandal films of the 1960s. Noted film critic Raymond Durgnat famously asked if he was "the brother of Quo?"[1]
His most notable role was "The Triumph of Hercules" (1964), in which Vadis portrayed Hercules battling golden giants and trying to save his princess love from her evil relative. The film was quickly followed by Hercules the Invincible retitled Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness, in The Sons of Hercules television package by Embassy Pictures.
After the sword and sandal films faded he moved into spaghetti westerns, then became a recurring face in Clint Eastwood westerns such as "High Plains Drifter".
He died 11 June 1987 in Lancaster, California, USA, in a car in the desert (accidental drug overdose; acute ethanol and heroin-morphine intoxication). He was survived by his wife Sharon Jessup and his son Nick Vadis, known as "Nick V".
[edit] Notes
- ^ p.71 Frayling, Christopher Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone" 1981 Routledge
