GQ for CS: Was Rudolph Valentino gay?

Cafe Society
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This is a GQ but since it’s about a movie star I’ll put it here and leave its resolution to the will of the Mods.

Rudolph Valentino is a name that often pops up on names of famous gay celebrities, but I’ve never read any documentary evidence of this. I know that he was married twice and was probably more of a legend after his death than while he was alive (IIRC he was actually something of a has-been when he died, but because of his beautiful young corpse death made him a superstar), though his second wife, Natasha Rambova [b. Winifred Shaughnessy*]) also appears on lists of famous gays even though she remarried after Rudy.

I’ve never read a biography of Valentino- does anybody know the straight dope on his sexuality or his career status? (My understanding is that it was actually an urban legend rather than fact that his death led to suicides among young women.)

Some trivia about Natasha that I picked up years ago when researching 19th century Mormonism: Valentino got into trouble for bigamy when he married her because his first divorce wasn’t final, which is ironic considering Natasha’s family. Natasha/Winifred left Utah and changed her name hoping to put her family’s scandals behind her: her father had two wives (simultaneously) and her grandfather was HeberC. Kimball , possibly the most married white man in the history of the Americas (a close friend of Brigham Young and early convert to Mormonism, he had at least 45 wives who bore him at least 65 children).

**I specify “white” because there are accounts of Mayan, Aztec & Incan kings as well as a few chiefs from non-urban Indian tribes credited with an enormous number of wives.

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Was Valentino gay? Probably no one’s left alive who would know for sure so anything’s gonna be speculation at this point. He’s generally perceived to be gay but from the biographical information I’ve read (some of it unfortunately from the infamous Irving Shulman, other from the equally unfortunate Kenneth Anger) much of the gay idea came from contemporary press coverage of RV which used him as a poster child for attacks on a changing perception of the masculine ideal. Famously an editorial (in a Chicago paper IIRC) referred to him as a “pink powder puff,” which inspired him to challenge the writer to a fist fight. Both of RV’s wives are thought to have been lesbians and sources indicate that his first marriage was unconsumated. There are references in the biographies of other contemporaries (e.g. Alla Nazimova) indicating his marriage to Rambova was consumated, but still other references (e.g. William Haines) which accept as an article of faith that RV was gay.

So, to answer your question, maybe.