Dino Manelli was a rising star of Hollywood prior to World War II. Among his films, Maneilli starred in a Western as Wyatt Earp, a French Legionaire movie with Errol Flynn and Moon Over Telluride. The young actor turned down an opportunity to work on a film with Alfred Hitchcock just before enlisting in the armed services. Manelli's friends included many of Hollywood's top comedians, including Bob Hope and Groucho Marx.

Leaving a Hollywood career behind, Dino Manelli joined the Howlers, bringing his fluency in both German, Dutch, and Italian, as well as his acting skills to the team, making him a valuable asset during the many Howler missions behind enemy lines. Always the carefree and suave superstar, the matinee idol encountered his share of personal tragedies,including being seriously wounded on a number of occasions. Among his replacements where Stonewall and Eric Koenig who eventually became a permanent member of the team. During his time away from the front lines, he made training films for the Army, narrating and directing them for the War Department. Returning to the Howlers, for a time, Manelli was transferred to the "Deadly Dozen", first commanded by Dum Dum Dugan and later by 'Combat' Kelly. 

With his crooning just out of earshot of any Nazi just before he met with a knuckle sandwich from him, Manelli as part of the Howling Commandos frequently struck fear into the Nazi and Japanese enemies in mission after mission. Such were the Howling Commandos feared by the Third Reich, that a counter squad of elite fighters, the Blitzkrieg Squad was formed, and among their number, Frtiz, with four citations of bravery under intense combat and matinee idols looks earned a spot on Von Strucker's elite counter squad to the Howling Commandos as the opposite number to Dino Manelli.

After the war, Manelli was back in Hollywood. Its rumored that Manelli helped Sophia Loren break into acting, having met her briefly during the war as a young teenager. Maneli went on to star in twenty seven movies and won two Oscars. The Howler returned to the army in Korea, once again serving as a Howling Commando. Dino continued his career in recording and television, most notably with a variety show, The Dino Manelli Show. Eventually Manelli left television and transitioned to the stages of Las Vegas, where after an altercation with the local crime family, he decided to buy his own hotel. In 1963 he was kidnapped in Vegas and replaced with a robot in a failed attempt by A.I.M. to assassinate President Kennedy.

Despite movie star looks, Manelli has remained unlucky in love. His fiancee Nina Bergson was revealed to be a Nazi spy during the war, and his engagement to singer Julie Winston went sour when Dino learned she was part of a plan to blackmail him by the Maggia. Despite these romantic pitfalls, one union proved promising enough to produce a daughter, Jody, however this relationship was at an end by the 1980s.

Excitement continued to follow Manelli into his civilian life. He returned to fight alongside his Howler team mates once more in a secret mission in Vietnam. Other Howler reunions also proved fraught with danger; jumping into action again to help combat a Von Strucker LMD who killed his old commanding officer, 'Happy' Sam Sawyer, and chasing after assassins who tried to kill Howler-turned U.S. senator Reb Ralston. Manelli also served unofficially for SHIELD during the recovery of the lost agents from the Deltite Affair in the early 1990's. 

He was last seen among those who attended Fury's "funeral" in 1995. At a 2010 Howling Commandos reunion, Senator Ralston told his grandson, Ryan Ralston, that Dino had passed away..