José Luis de Villalonga

José Luis de Vilallonga y Cabeza de Vaca, 9th Marquess of Castellbell, GE (29 January 1920 – 30 August 2007) was a Spanish nobleman, actor and author. He was born in Madrid to an important Catalan noble family, son of Salvador de Vilallonga y Cárcer, 8th Marquess of Castellbell amongst other titles, and María del Carmen Cabeza de Vaca y Carvajal, daughter of the 9th Marquess of Portago. On his paternal side, he was descended from viceroy Amat, whereas on his maternal side, some of Vilallonga's ancestors were Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Pedro Téllez-Girón, Ferrante Gonzaga II and Christopher Columbus. Both Alfonso de Portago and Vicente Sartorius were his first cousins.Growing up, he spent the first two years of his life at a clinic in Munich, to recover from an intestinal condition with which he was born. He studied at the Jesuits of Barcelona and in other schools from which he was often expelled for misbehaviour. When the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1931, he went into exile with his parents to Biarritz for six months but eventually returned. Her grandmother had a powerful influence on his education, which was very broad and advanced for the time. The Spanish Civil War broke out while Vilallonga was studying at École Saint-Elme, a Dominican school in Arcachon. He immediately returned to Spain and entered the ranks of the rebel faction as a provisional second lieutenant of Requetés; he recounted that he was part of a firing squad as young as 16 years old.After pursuing a four-year long career in diplomacy, he married his first wife Esyylt Priscilla Scott-Ellis, a daughter of Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, while he was working as an attaché in London. He then became interested in journalism and literature, his first works being at Diario de Barcelona. Vilallonga also worked for foreign magazines including Paris Match, as he was banned from returning to Spain following the Francoist regime's censoreship of a few of his articles. His actor career came through as a result of his good connections with many prominent figures of the artistic world, landing roles in The Lovers (1958), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) and Darling (1965). In Spain, he was noted for his performance in the second and third films of Berlanga's "Nacional" trilogy, namely Patrimonio Nacional (1981) and Nacional III (1982).After a brief step through politics that included toying with the Socialist Party of Spain, Vilallonga wrote the first ever and only authorised biography of king Juan Carlos I, titled El Rey and published in 1993.His peculiar character, described as "a mixture of aristocratic arrogance, self-confidence and unconcern", brought him frequent enmities with other public figures. He was known to be a multifaceted, charming, elegant and playboy-like figure. At his death in 2007, Vilallonga was referred to by several newspapers as "the last dandy".

Vilallonga was married three times, to The Honourable Esyllt-Priscilla Scott-Ellis (daughter of Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden) (b. 1916 d. 1983) (married 1945, divorced 1972), Syliane Stella Morell (married 1974, divorced 1995), and from 1999 to journalist Begoña Aranguren. A spendthrift, he soon disposed of much of his first wife's inheritance and property. He had frequent affairs, including a relationship with the French actress Michèle Girardon and Hungarian actress Magda Gabor, both while still legally married to Essylt-Priscilla Scott-Ellis. Girardon eventually committed suicide in 1975 after de Vilallonga ended their relationship to marry Syliane Stella Morell. Though courts twice found him liable for alimony to his first wife Essylt-Priscilla Scott-Ellis, de Vilallonga never paid the judgment, an act which reduced her to poverty for the remainder of her life. His third wife Begoña Aranguren also became disenchanted with de Vilallonga, and the couple separated in 2002. Aranguren wrote a scathing portrayal of the aging socialite and their marriage in 2004.

Born in Madrid, Spain, de Vilallonga – who also went by the surname of Cabeza de Vaca – was a Grandee of Spain and part of the nobility, holding the title of Marquess of Castellbell. Upon the declaration in 1931 of Spain's Second Republic his family went into exile in Biarritz, France, but returned six months later. When the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, de Vilallonga was at a French school, but his father ordered him back to Spain to fight on the side of the Nationalists. By his mother's family side he was a first cousin of both the Marquess of Portago and the Marquess of Mariño, being all from the maternal side of the Cabeza de Vaca family. His father was an enthusiastic supporter of the rebel side, and at age 16 de Vilallonga was allegedly a serving member of a Nationalist execution platoon.