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Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino, better known as simply Ricardo Montalbán (born November 25, 1920 in Mexico City) is a television, theatre and film actor. He is best known for his roles as Mr. Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island and villain Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Background His elder brother, Carlos Montalbán, was instrumental in moving Ricardo to the United States. Also an actor, Carlos is best-known for portraying El Exigente ("The Demanding One"), a coffee export agent, in a series of television commercial for Savarin Coffee in the 1960s and 1970s. When Montalbán first arrived in Los Angeles, California, he had no knowledge of the English language, and was initially rejected from Fairfax High School in West Hollywood, California. He attended Belmont High School in downtown Los Angeles and studied English intensely for hours each day after school. Four months later, Montalbán was accepted to the "more academically challenging" Fairfax High School and carried on the development of his language skills. It was at Fairfax High that Montalbán was first discovered by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executives while he was playing the lead role in the school play, Tovarich. From 1993-1994, Montalbán was confined to a wheelchair and lived in constant pain. Reports differ as to the exact cause; one source says it is the result of nine and a half hours of spinal surgery to repair an injury he received making Across the Wide Missouri in 1951, while another says he was left immobilized by partial paralysis after three operations for a congenital condition affecting his spine. The last word heard about his health was at the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in 2004, in which he sent a taped message to the convention goers explaining that his doctors recommended he did not travel due to a spinal cord injury. In the recording, he was clearly seen seated in a wheelchair. He married Georgiana Young (née Georgiana Belzer), youngest half-sister of the late film stars Polly Ann Young, Sally Blane, and the more famous Loretta Young. Loretta died at the Montalbáns' home in Santa Monica, California in 2000 after a bout with cancer. He and his wife married in 1944, and they have 4 children. They are devout Catholics. In October 2003, Montalbán received a lifetime achievement award from Catholic Media Associates for his "tenacity and faith" that Montalbán said "has seen me through my many years in entertainment." Ricardo Montalbán has retained his Mexican citizenship, but is a permanent resident of the United States only. Career Montalbán's first leading role was the 1949 film Border Incident, with George Murphy. During the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the few working Hispanic actors. Many of his early roles were in Westerns in which he played character parts, usually as an Indian or the Latin lover. In 1950, he was cast against type, playing a Barnstable Cape Cod cop in the film noir Mystery Street. In 1957/59 he starred in the long running Broadway musical Jamaica. In 1975, he was chosen as the television spokesman for the new Chrysler Cordoba. The car was successful and heavily advertised; his mellifluous delivery of a line praising its "soft Corinthian leather" (often mis-remembered as "fine" or "rich" * ) upholstery became famous and was much parodied. He has been a favorite subject of impressionists, with Eugene Levy, for instance, frequently impersonating him on SCTV. In 1986, he was featured in a magazine ad for the new Chrysler New Yorker. One of his most well-known roles was that of Mr. Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island, from 1978 to 1984. For a time the series was one of the most popular on television. His character and his sidekick, Tattoo (played by Hervé Villechaize), were pop icons. He played an entirely different (yet equally well-known) role by appearing as Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which he reprised from a 1967 episode of Star Trek called "Space Seed". Montalbán has appeared in many diverse films including The Naked Gun and two films from the Planet of the Apes series. He also appeared in the second Spy Kids film in 2002, and the third one in 2003, as the kids' grandfather. Over the course of his long career, he has played roles or guest starred in dozens of television series. Trivia Recent Happenings For the last three years, Montalban has been involved in a lawsuit with his Beverly Hills neighbor, and Friends creator, David Crane, regarding construction Crane's house is undergoing. Allegedly Montalban is infuriated with the constant noise and the height of the new wing on Crane's house which obstructs Montalban's view. The lawsuit is pending in Los Angeles Superior Court. Filmography
1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s to the present | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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