The Real Rudy

Former New York mayor and current GOP presidential front runner Rudolph Giuliani is a dramatic--and self-dramatizing--moralist. But as an intelligent, sensitive man with a solid Roman Catholic education, he knows there is sometimes a fine or blurry line between saint and sinner. He has long believed in the duty and power of redemption, and he puts great faith in the virtue of loyalty. He does not shy from confrontation but seems to welcome and even create conflict, especially if there are cameras nearby. There is an intensity and intimacy to Giuliani than can be unsettling: he has an authoritarian streak, as well as a penchant for secrecy and dependence on loyalists, that may remind voters of the current chief executive. He can be hero or hypocrite or both at once; his theatricality can be excessive, and not just because he has been known to dress up in drag as a spoof. Who is the real Rudy? A look back in pictures at the defining moments in his life.

Photo: Shaul Schwarz / Getty Images for Newsweek