On May 12, 1957, 28-year-old Alfonso de Portago violently crashed the Ferrari he was driving in Italy's Mille Miglia race, killing himself, his co-driver, and nine bystanders.
Public DomainSpanish aristocrat and playboy Alfonso de Portago chased thrills until a deadly crash killed him at age 28.
The Mille Miglia, a 1,000-mile race driven on the open roads of Italy, ended in disaster in 1957. That year, driver Alfonso de Portago was less than 30 miles from the finish line when he crashed, killing himself and 10 others.
Moments before the accident, a photographer had snapped the final image of Portago alive. In the picture, actress Linda Christian leans over the side of Portago’s Ferrari to kiss the racecar driver. Published in newspapers announcing the horrible crash, the photo became known as the “Kiss of Death.”
Just like his death, Alfonso de Portago’s life had been lived at high speed. He was born to aristocracy, competed in the Olympics as a bobsledder, flew airplanes, and was a well-known playboy. He had picked up racing on a whim just three years before his fatal collision.
Chillingly, just before competing in the race, Portago had written an article for Sports Illustrated, in which he declared, “Few professions… have less security and more uncertainty about the future than motor racing. One can be on top one second, but all it requires is a very small error and one is very embarrassingly dead the next.”
He had no idea how soon his words would prove prophetic.
Who Was Alfonso De Portago?
Born to a Spanish nobleman in 1928, Alfonso de Portago boasted a powerful lineage. His godfather and namesake was Spain’s last king, Alfonso XIII. Portago’s grandfather had been the governor of Madrid. His father won $2 million gambling at Monte Carlo. Portago himself was the Marquis de Portago.
From an early age, Portago chased danger. At 17, the thrill seeker received a pilot’s license, only to purportedly lose it after flying under a bridge in London on a dare. Portago also tried his hand at horse racing and competed in the 1956 Olympics as part of Spain’s bobsled team.
Public DomainAlfonso de Portago nearly took home a medal in the 1956 Olympics, where Spain’s bobsled team came in fourth place.
In 1954, Portago jumped into racecar driving and vowed to become world champion by 1960 — but he died three years short of his goal.
“A man like Portago appears only once in a generation, and it would probably be more accurate to say only once in a lifetime,” said Gregor Grant, the editor of Autosport, according to a 1957 feature in Sports Cars Illustrated.
“The fellow does everything fabulously well,” Grant continued. “Never mind the driving, the steeplechasing, the bobsledding, the athletic side of things, never mind the being fluent in four languages. There are so many other aspects to the man. For example, I think he could be the best bridge player in the world if he cared to try, he could certainly be a great soldier, and I suspect he could be a fine writer.”
However, Alfonso de Portago had seemingly found his passion in car racing — and he soon earned a reputation as a bold risk taker on the track.
Alfonso De Portago’s Years On The Racetrack
Portago was as fearless behind the wheel of a racecar as he was in a bobsled. But he didn’t care much about the technical side of driving.
“Automobiles bore me, I know next to nothing about them, and I care less,” Portago once admitted to a friend. “When I have a racing car that I’m going to drive, I walk up to it and I look at it and I think, ‘Now, is this son-of-a-bitch going to hold together for the next 500 kilometers?’ That’s the only interest I have in it. And as soon as the race is over, I couldn’t care less what happens to it.”
Public DomainWhen Alfonso de Portago raced, he often left his cars battered.
Portago’s indifference showed. He often wore out the brakes on his vehicles so badly that he had to switch cars multiple times during a race.
During his first race in 1954 in Buenos Aires, Portago had to admit that he’d never learned how to shift gears. Yet he somehow managed to rack up six first-place wins in major races.
“It sounds corny,” Portago said, “but I think that because racing drivers are very near to death every Sunday in the season, they are more sensitive to life, and appreciate it more.”
Public DomainAlfonso de Portago declared, “I won’t die of an accident,” not long before he died in a car crash.
“You know, people say that racing drivers are daredevils who don’t care whether they live or not, and you’ve seen stories about me and my flirting with death and all that,” Portago explained. “Nonsense, all nonsense. I want to live to be 105, and I mean to. I want to live to be a very old man. I’m enchanted with life.”
Tragically, his life would come to an end when he was just 28 years old.
The 1957 Mille Miglia And The “Kiss Of Death”
On May 12, 1957, Alfonso de Portago and his co-driver, Edmund Nelson, set out on the Mille Miglia. The Italian race took drivers across a 1,000-mile course on winding, narrow roads.
Before the race, Portago shared his concerns about the course. “No matter how much you practice you can’t possibly come to know 1,000 miles of Italian roads as well as the Italians,” Portago said.
“If you have a conscience, you can’t drive really fast anyway,” added Portago. “There are hundreds of corners in the Mille Miglia where one little slip by a driver will kill 50 people. You can’t keep the spectators from crowding into the road — you couldn’t do it with an army.”
Public DomainThe infamous “Kiss of Death” photograph captures the final moments of driver Alfonso de Portago.
Days before the race, Portago prophetically wrote to his second wife, fashion model Dorian Leigh, “I did not want to do the Mille Miglia… That means that my ‘early death’ may well come next Sunday.”
Less than 30 miles from the finish line, that early death arrived.
The Crash That Killed Alfonso De Portago
It wasn’t the sharp corners that killed Alfonso de Portago during the Mille Miglia. He crashed on a straightaway.
Closing in on the finish line in the 1,000-mile race, Portago’s Ferrari 335 S reached a speed of 150 miles per hour. Then, his front left tire blew.
The car flew off the road, crashing into a concrete barrier and ricocheting into a crowd of spectators. The crash killed Portago and Nelson instantly, crushing them beneath the Ferrari. Nine spectators, including five children, also died in the accident.
Public DomainThe Ferrari 335 S that Portago drove in the 1957 Mille Miglia race.
Alfonso de Portago’s crash was not the first during the Mille Miglia. The race had a reputation for claiming the lives of drivers and spectators. But after the 1957 race that killed Portago and 10 others, the Mille Miglia officially ended.
Friends predicted that Portago would not live to see 30. They were right — he died at 28. However, Alfonso de Portago himself did not see his death coming. “I won’t die of an accident,” he once proclaimed. “I’ll die of old age or be executed in some gross miscarriage of justice.”
After reading about the life and death of Alfonso de Portago, learn the story behind the “Kiss of Life” photograph. Then, check out photos from the famous Le Mans grand prix.
