Funeral services were conducted in Rome Thursday for Italy's so-called playboy prince, Dado Ruspoli, The Telegraph reported.
Prior to his death of undisclosed causes, Ruspoli, 80, and his family had planned a lavish party for 600 at his palace in Rome complete with a ballet troupe for Thursday evening, which the family did not call off.
A poet, painter, photographer and traveler, he also became an occasional film actor, and among his roles played a small part in "The Godfather, Part III."
Once remembered by his friend and diary columnist Taki as the "best looking man of his time" and being "hooked on opium", Dado was notorious both for his wayward lifestyle and as a womanizer, the newspaper said.
In 1962 his first wife took her life, while his second marriage ended in betrayal on both sides. Before his marriage in 1995 to his third wife and now his widow, Patricia Genest, a French former model 40 years his junior, he was linked to Bella Freud, the British fashion designer.
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