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By the age most of us settled into boring office jobs, Stanley Clifford Weyman was faking the part of a doctor in Lima, Peru where he threw parties that made Hugh Hefner seem like a Mormon. There are no movies starring Leonardo DiCaprio about him but he was one of the most amazing impostors in history. Why did he do it? Screw the money, he just didn’t want to get bored: “One man’s life is a boring thing. I lived many lives. I’m never bored.” This is a look at four things that he did that not even the ballsiest of con artists would dare attempt.

1 ) The USS Wyoming Inspection (1915)

While wearing a crisp blue suit, complete with gold braid and admiral’s hat, he played the part of a Romanian army officer serving as consul general – Lieutenant Commander Ethan Allen Weinberg – and inspected the sailors in behalf of the Queen of Romania. The ship’s captain ignored the fact that Weyman was a 25-year old Jewish kid from Brooklyn that didn’t speak a word of Romanian, and watched as Weyman hammed it up by occasionally reprimanding sailors for having dirty uniforms or standing incorrectly.

Afterwards, Weyman decided to throw a party for the ship’s officers at the Astor Hotel and asked the manager to send the bill to the Romanian consulate. If that wasn’t ballsy enough, at the height of the party he was exposed as an impostor by detectives and while being arrested he complained: “You could have at least waited until dessert.”

2 ) Meeting Princess Fatima of Afghanistan (1921)

After coming back from Peru, he noticed that Princess Fatima of Afghanistan was in the US but had not been given an official reception. Weyman faked his way into her suite as a Naval Liaison Officer, apologized for the oversight, and asked for $10,000 to set up an appointment to meet the president.

While most con artists would have been happy with the money, Weyman used some of the money to rent a private railroad carriage to take the princess to Washington DC. Once there he managed to talk his way into a meeting with the Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes. But even that wasn’t enough because he managed to convince Hughes to set up a meeting with President Harding. After nudging his way his way into a few pictures, talking frankly with the president, and raising a few alarms about protocol he just waltzed out with the princess and her entourage.

3 ) Rudolph Valentino’s funeral (1926)

Pola Negri was a famous actress in the ’20s that was known for playing theatrical femme fatales. After Rudolph Valentino passed away she had announced that Valentino had planned on marrying her and a media frenzy surrounded her. Naturally, Weyman had to get into the spotlight and lied his way into her life by claiming to be a doctor and close personal friend of Valentino. He promised to look after her, drugged her up with some sedatives, and started putting out press releases over the state of her health.

Weyman managed to out act Negri at Valentino’s funeral. They followed the funeral train from New York City to Los Angeles and made sure to stop for plenty of pictures for the press. At the funeral she “fainted” a few times and Weyman was always at her side to catch her in the most dramatic of fashions. While she was recuperating at her hotel, Weyman changed into a full doctor’s outfit and started administering smelling salts to fainting fans – and press – outside.

4) Death (1960)

After Valentino’s funeral the press took glee in exposing him, he was becoming well known by law enforcement, and he was getting old. It became harder to pull of grandiose stunts but it didn’t stop him from trying: during WWII he opened a school to teach draft dodgers to act stupid and deaf, spent a few more years in jail, and almost became Thailand’s press officer until the State Department exposed him. Eventually, he settled into a simple life as a porter for a hotel.

But even in death, he managed to go out with style. At the age of 70 he tried to stop some thieves from robbing the hotel he was working at and was shot to death. As the investigating officer put it, he died a hero: “I’ve known about the man’s past record for years. He did a lot of things in the course of his life, but what he did this time was brave.”

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5