View source for John Valva

'''John Valva''', actor and ex-lover of [[Roddy McDowall]].

Right about the time that [[Elizabeth Taylor]] was having an affair with [[Richard Burton]], while still married to [[Eddie Fisher]], Eddie comments in his autobiography that "...Roddy McDowall and his close friend John Valva..." helped Richard was was dead-drunk back to his apartment (page 243).

So who was John Valva?


C. David Heymann in his biography of [[Elizabeth Taylor]] states that at the time Liz and [[Eddie Fisher]] stayed in New York, Roddy McDowell and John Valva were "sharing a ten-room apartment in the El Dorado, a grand art deco building at 300 Central Park West" (pg 215).  This author goes on to state that when [[Roddy McDowall]] signed on to play Octavian in ''Cleopatra'' "As an accomodation to McDowall, Joe Mankiewicz created a minor part for Roddy's live-in companion; accordingly the director cast John Valva as a Roman soldier named Valvus." (pg 234)

C. David Heymann states that he conducted a personal interview with John Valva.  The summary of this is that Sybil Burton divorced [[Richard Burton]] Dec 1963.  Sybil and her daughter Kate moved into the same apartment building where Roddy McDowall was living with his lover John Valva.  A few months later she moved to Staten Island and invited John to visit her.  "At first, I spent weekends with her.  I gradually fell in love with her, or thought I had, and moved in full-time," said Valva.  "I left Roddy McDowall to be with Sybil."

After a month with Sybil, John thought maybe he'd made a mistake and Sybil agreed.  He left her, but Roddy wouldn't take him back, so John attempted suicide (page 269-270)

[[Category:Movies and Television]]
[[Category:New York]]