Ricardo Montalbán

Ricardo Montalbán
Born	Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino
Occupation(s)	Actor, director
Years active	1942 - 2009
Spouse	Georgiana Young (1944-2007)
Awards	Golden Boot 1985

Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino (November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican-born American television, theatre, and film actor. He had a career spanning decades and multiple notable roles. During the mid-to-late 1970s, he was the spokesperson in automobile advertisements for the Chrysler Cordoba (in which he famously extols the "soft Corinthian leather" used for its interior). From 1977 to 1984 he starred as Mr. Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island. He also played Khan Noonien Singh in both a 1967 episode "Space Seed" of the first season of the original Star Trek series, and the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He won an Emmy Award in 1978, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993. Up until his 80s, he continued to perform, often providing voices for animated films and commercials.

Biography

Early life

Montalbán was born in Mexico City, the son of Spanish emigres' Ricarda Merino and Jenaro Montalbán, a store manager. He had a brother, actor Carlos Montalbán, and a sister, Carmen.

Career

Montalbán has stated that when he first arrived in Hollywood, studios wanted to change his name to Ricky Martin. He has frequently portrayed Asian characters – mostly of Japanese background, as in Sayonara and the Hawaii Five-O episode "Samurai." His first leading role was the 1949 film Border Incident, with actor George Murphy. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was one of only a handful of actively working Hispanic actors.

Many of his early roles were in Westerns in which he played character parts, usually as an "Indian" or as a "Latin Lover." In 1950, he was cast against type, playing a Cape Cod police officer in the film Mystery Street. In 1957, he played Nakamura in the Oscar-winning film Sayonara.

From 1957 to 1959 he starred in the Broadway musical Jamaica, singing several light-hearted calypso numbers opposite Lena Horne.

Montalbán also starred in radio, such as the internationally syndicated program "Lobo del Mar" (Seawolf), in which he was cast as the captain of a vessel which became part of some adventure at each port it visited. This 30-minute weekly show aired in many Spanish speaking countries until the early 70s.

In 1975, he was chosen as the television spokesman for the new Chrysler Cordoba. The car became a successful model, and over the following several years, was heavily advertised; his mellifluous delivery of a line praising the "soft Corinthian leather" upholstery of the car's interior, often misquoted as "fine or rich Corinthian leather," became famous and was much parodied, and Montalbán subsequently became a favorite subject of impersonators. Eugene Levy, for example, frequently impersonated him on SCTV. In 1986, he was featured in a magazine advertisement for the new Chrysler New Yorker.

Montalbán's best-known television role was that of Mr. Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island, which he played from 1978 until 1984. For a while, the series was one of the most popular on television, and his character as well as that of his sidekick, Tattoo (played by Hervé Villechaize), became pop icons. Another of his well-known roles was that of Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in which he reprised a role that he had originated in the 1967 episode of Star Trek titled "Space Seed." There were some questions initially as to whether Montalbán had had prosthetic muscles applied to his chest during filming of Star Trek II to make him appear more muscular, on account of his being over 60 years old at the time. Montalbán and others associated with the production of Star Trek II have disputed this, most notably Leonard Nimoy in his book I Am Spock, citing the fact that he was always physically active and worked out regularly, and those really were his muscles. The theory that those chest muscles were Montalban's own is furthered in the installment of the Biography series devoted to him, in which both William Shatner and Montalban's son say Ricardo worked out strenuously to achieve that look. Film clips and shots throughout the episode bolster these claims, as they evidence a man in fine physical shape even into his 70s.

Montalbán appeared in many diverse films including The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! as well as two films from both the Planet of the Apes and Spy Kids series. In addition, he appeared in various musicals, such as 1966's The Singing Nun, also starring Debbie Reynolds. Over the course of his long career, he played lead roles or guest starred in dozens of television series. Since 1993, Montalbán had to use a wheelchair after a long-unresolved spinal injury from the 1951 film Across the Wide Missouri recurred. In filming one scene, Montalban was reportedly thrown off a horse, knocked out, and walked on by another horse, leaving him with a spinal injury that troubled him for the rest of his life and grew more painful as he aged. In 1993, he underwent surgery, but it only made the pain worse. Montalban continued to work, usually delivering his lines from a wheelchair.

In several interviews and public speeches, Montalbán described "the five stages of the actor" as follows:

1. Who is Ricardo Montalbán?
2. Get me Ricardo Montalbán.
3. Get me a Ricardo Montalbán type.
4. Get me a young Ricardo Montalbán.
5. Who is Ricardo Montalbán?

During the inauguration of the Ricardo Montalbán Theater (formerly the Doolittle Theater) in Hollywood, Montalbán jokingly added two more stages: "Wait a minute — isn't that Whats-his-name?", referring to his role in the Spy Kids movies, and "Who the hell is that?", believing that to be the reaction to people seeing his name on the theater.

Personal life

He married Georgiana Young, an actress, in 1944; they had four children: Laura, Mark, Anita and Victor. She was the half-sister of the actresses Sally Blane, Polly Ann Young, and movie and television star Loretta Young, who nicknamed her "Georgie". Georgiana's niece is Judy Lewis, daughter of Lorretta Young and Clark Gable. After 63 years of marriage, Georgiana Young de Montalbán died on November 13, 2007, at the age of 84.

Montalbán established the Nosotros Foundation, which attempted to highlight and recognize Latino participation in the arts and entertainment. In 1970, the foundation created the Golden Eagle Awards, an annual awards show that recognizes Latino stars,

He was a practicing Roman Catholic and once had said that his religion was the "most important thing" in his life. He was named a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by the Vatican in 1998. . He recorded a Public Service Announcement celebrating his American citizenship in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty in 1986.

Death

Montalbán died on January 14, 2009, at his home in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 88. The cause of death has not yet been officially identified, although son-in-law Gilbert Smith did say he died of "complications from advancing age".

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1943	Santa	Jarameño
1944	La Fuga	Teniente
1947	Fiesta	Mario Morales
1948	On an Island with You	Ricardo Montez
	The Kissing Bandit	Fiesta Specialty Dancer
1949	Neptune's Daughter	José O'Rourke
	Border Incident	Pablo Rodriguez
	Battleground	Rodriguez
1950	Mystery Street	Lieutenant Peter Morales	Alternative title: Murder at Harvard
	Two Weeks With Love	Demi Armendez
	Right Cross	Johnny Monterez
1951	Across the Wide Missouri	Ironshirt (Blackfoot war chief)
	Mark of the Renegade	Marcos Zappa
1952	My Man and I	Chu Chu Ramirez
1953	Latin Lovers	Roberto Santos
1954	The Saracen Blade	Pietro Donati
1955	A Life in the Balance	Antonio Gómez
1956	Three for Jamie Dawn	George Lorenz
1957	Sayonara	Nakamura
1962	Ernest Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man	Major Padula
1963	Love Is a Ball	Duke Gaspard Ducluzeau	Alternative title: All This and Money Too
1964	Cheyenne Autumn	Little Wolf
1965	The Money Trap	Pete Delanos
1966	Madame X	Phil Benton
	The Singing Nun	Father Clementi
1967	The Longest Hundred Miles	Father Sanchez
1968	Sol Madrid	Jalisco	Alternative title: The Heroin Gang
1969	Sweet Charity	Vittorio Vidal
1971	The Deserter	Natachai
	Escape from the Planet of the Apes	Armando
1972	Conquest of the Planet of the Apes	Armando
1973	The Train Robbers	The Pinkerton man
1982	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	Khan Noonien Singh
1984	Cannonball Run II	King
1988	The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!	Vincent Ludwig
2002	Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams	Grandfather
2003	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over	Grandfather
2006	The Ant Bully	The Head of Council	Voice
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	General Electric Theater	Esteban	1 episode
1957	Wagon Train	Jean LeBec	1 episode
1958	Frances Farmer Presents	Tio	1 episode
1959	Adventures in Paradise	Henri Privaux	1 episode
1960	Death Valley Days	Joaquin Murietta	1 episode
1961	The Dinah Shore Chevy Show	Karl Steiner	1 episode
1962	Cain's Hundred	Vincent Pavanne	1 episode
1963	Ben Casey	Henry Davis	1 episode
1964	The Defenders	'Spanish John' Espejo	1 episode
1964	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Satine	1 episode
1966	Dr. Kildare	Damon West	4 episodes
1966	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Delgado	1 episode
1967	Star Trek	Khan Noonien Singh	1 episode - "Space Seed"
1967	Mission: Impossible	Gerard Sefra	1 episode - "Snowball In Hell"
1967	Combat!	Barbu	1 episode
1968	Ironside	Sgt. Al Cervantes	1 episode
1970	Gunsmoke	Chato	1 episode
1972	Here's Lucy	Prince Phillip Gregory Hennepin Of Montalbania	1 episode
1974	Wonder Woman	Abner Smith	Made for TV movie (pilot)
1975	Switch	Jean-Paul	1 episode
1976	Columbo	Luis Montoya	1 episode
1977	Police Story	Major Sergio Flores	1 episode
1978-1984	Fantasy Island	Mr. Roarke	124 episodes
1985-1987	The Colbys	Zachary "Zach" Powers	48 episodes
1986	Dynasty	Zachary "Zach" Powers	2 episodes
1990	B.L. Stryker	Victor Costanza	1 episode
1990	Murder, She Wrote	Vaacclav Maryska	1 episode
1991	Dream On	Alejandro Goldman	1 episode
1993	The Golden Palace	Lawrence Gentry	1 episode
1995-1996	Freakazoid!	Armondo Gutierrez (Voice)	4 episodes
1997	Chicago Hope	Col. Martin Nieves	1 episode
1998	The Love Boat: The Next Wave	Manuel Kaire	1 episode
2000	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command	Vartkes (Voice)	1 episode
2001	Titans	Mr. Sanchez	1 episode
2002	Dora the Explorer	El Encantador (Voice)	1 episode
2002-2007	Kim Possible	Señor Senior Sr. (Voice)	5 episodes
2008	Family Guy	The Cow	1 episode

External links

• Ricardo Montalbán's death announced in Los Angeles
• Ricardo Montalbán at Memory Alpha
• Please use a more specific IBDB template. See the documentation for available templates.
• Archive of American Television interview with Ricardo Montalbán on August 13, 2002
• Catholics in Media Associates Lifetime Achievement Award
• "Ricardo Montalbán dies at 88; 'Fantasy Island' actor," Los Angeles Times, Thursday, January 15, 2009.
• "Ricardo Montalbán, Star of 'Fantasy Island,' Dies at 88," New York Times, Thursday, January 15, 2009.

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