Ricardo Montalbán
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG (/ˌmɒntəlˈbɑːn/ MON-təl-BAHN; Spanish: [montalˈβan]; November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican and American film and television actor. Montalbán's career spanned seven decades, during which he became widely known for performances in genres from crime and drama to musicals and comedy.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Montalbán and the second or maternal family name is Merino.
Ricardo Montalbán
January 14, 2009 (aged 88)
Mexican, American[1]
Actor
1941–2008
4
Carlos Montalbán (brother)
Emmy Award (1978)
Screen Actors Guild (1993)
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Later in his career, Montalbán portrayed Armando in the Planet of the Apes film series from the early 1970s, starring in both Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). As the villain Khan Noonien Singh, a genetically enhanced human, he starred in both the original Star Trek television series (1967) and the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
During the 1970s and 1980s, Montalbán was a spokesman for Chrysler for thirteen years, featured in their automotive commercials and advertisements, notably those in which he extolled the "rich Corinthian leather" used in the Cordoba's interior.[2]
Montalbán played Mr. Roarke on the television series Fantasy Island (1977–1984). He won an Emmy Award for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won (1978),[3] and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993. Montalbán was professionally active into his 80s, providing voices for animated films and commercials and appearing as Grandfather Valentin in the Spy Kids franchise.
Early life[edit]
Montalbán was born on November 25, 1920, in Mexico City, and grew up in Torreón,[4] the son of Spanish immigrants Ricarda Merino Jiménez and Genaro Balbino Montalbán Busano, a store manager,[5] who raised him as a Catholic.[6][7] He was born with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in his spine.[8] Montalbán had a sister, Carmen, and two brothers, Pedro and Carlos.[9] As a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles to live with Carlos. They moved to New York City in 1940, and Montalbán earned a minor role in the play Her Cardboard Lover.[10]
Career[edit]
Short films[edit]
In 1941, Montalbán appeared in three-minute musicals produced for the Soundies film jukeboxes. He appeared in many of the New York–produced Soundies as an extra or as a member of a singing chorus (usually billed as Men and Maids of Melody), although he had the lead role in He's a Latin from Staten Island (1941), in which he (billed simply as "Ricardo") played the title role of a guitar-strumming gigolo, accompanied by an offscreen vocal by Gus Van.[11]
Mexican films[edit]
Later in 1941, Montalbán returned to Mexico after learning that his mother was dying. There, he acted in a dozen Spanish-language films and became a star in his homeland.[12]
He had an uncredited appearance in a version of The Three Musketeers (1942) starring Cantinflas. He can be glimpsed in El verdugo de Sevilla (1942), The Saint That Forged a Country (1942) starring Ramon Navarro, and La razón de la culpa (1943).
Stardom in Mexico[edit]
Montalbán became a star in Mexico in Santa (1943), which was directed by a Hollywood expat, Norman Foster. He followed it with a support role in Cinco fueron escogidos (1943).
Some American filmmakers shot a movie in Mexico about Yugoslavia in World War II, Five Were Chosen (1944). Montalbán had a support role.[13]
Foster gave him a second lead role in The Escape (1944) aka La Fuga. Montalban had the star role in Cadetes de la naval (1945), Nosotros (1945), and The Hour of Truth (1945), the latter a bullfighting drama also directed by Foster.[14]
Montalban was in The House of the Fox (1945), Pepita Jimenez (1946), and Fantasía ranchera (1947).
The way he was asked to portray Mexicans disturbed him, so Montalbán, along with Richard Hernandez, Val de Vargas, Rodolfo Hoyos Jr., Carlos Rivas, Tony de Marco, and Henry Darrow,[38] established the Nosotros ("We") Foundation in 1970 to advocate for Latinos in the movie and television industries.[39] He served as its first president, and was quoted as saying: "I received tremendous support, but there also were some negative repercussions. I was accused of being a militant, and as a result I lost jobs."[12] Ironically, the Nosotros Foundation and he were instrumental in taking roles away from Nico Minardos, a Greek-American actor who in the 1970s often played Latino roles because of his appearance and accent. Minardos similarly became outspoken, and according to his agent and others, it cost him a recurring role as a Mexican mayor in an episode of Alias Smith and Jones.[40]
The foundation created the Golden Eagle Awards, an annual awards show highlighting Latino actors. The awards are presented in conjunction with the Nosotros American Latino Film Festival, held at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood.[38]
The Nosotros Foundation and the Ricardo Montalbán Foundation agreed to purchase the Doolittle Theatre in 1999 from UCLA.[41] The theater had been owned by Howard Hughes in the early 1930s, then later was renamed the Huntington Hartford Theater when purchased in 1954 by philanthropist Huntington Hartford,[42] then later the Doolittle Theater. The process from agreement to opening took over four years. The facility in Hollywood was officially renamed the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre in a May 11, 2004, ceremony. The event was attended by numerous celebrities, including Ed Begley Jr. representing the Screen Actors Guild, Valerie Harper, Loni Anderson, Hector Elizondo, and Robert Goulet.[43]
When Montalbán rolled onto the stage in his wheelchair, he repeated "the five stages of the actor" (originally coined by Jack Elam to describe the course of his own career). Montalbán had become famous for using the self-deprecating joke in interviews and in public speeches:
He then jokingly added two more stages:
Montalbán spoke about the goal of the Nosotros organization:[43]