EARLY DAYS PRODUCTIONS
Montalbán was born on November 25, 1920 in Mexico City, but grew up in the city of Torreón, the son of Castilian Spanish émigrés Ricarda Merino and Jenaro Montalbán. He was raised as a devout Roman Catholic. Montalbán had a sister, Carmen, and two brothers, Pedro and the actor Carlos Montalbán. As a teenager, Ricardo moved to Los Angeles to live with Carlos.
1920 - 2009
Stats:
Real Name:
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino
Height:6'0"
Hair: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Dark
Brown
Nickname: None Found
Quote: "Mexican is not a nice-sounding word and Hollywood is at fault for this because we have been portrayed in this ungodly manner."
Real Name:
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino
Height:6'0"
Hair: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Dark
Brown
Nickname: None Found
Quote: "Mexican is not a nice-sounding word and Hollywood is at fault for this because we have been portrayed in this ungodly manner."
The two went to New York City in 1940, and Ricardo earned a minor role in the play, Her Cardboard Lover. In 1941, he appeared in his first motion pictures, three-minute musicals produced for the Soundies film jukeboxes. Ricardo Montalbán's first starring film was He's a Latin from Staten Island (1941), in which the young Latin (billed simply as "Ricardo") played the title role of a guitar-strumming gigolo, accompanied by an offscreen vocal by Gus Van. Late in 1941, Montalbán learned that his mother was dying, so he returned to Mexico. There, he acted in a few Spanish-language films and became a star in his homeland.
Montalbán arrived in Hollywood in 1943. His first leading role was in the 1949 film Border Incident with actor George Murphy. He went on to co-star in several MGM musicals often with aquatic star Esther Williams. 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. During the filming of the 1951 film, Across the Wide Missouri, Montalbán was thrown from his horse, knocked unconscious, and trampled by another horse, resulting in a painful back injury that never fully healed and eventually crippled him in his old age.
After years in feature films ,broadway stage, and radio,Montalbán became best-known for his role 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; director Nicholas Meyer replied that even in his sixties Montalbán had a vigorous training regimin, was "one strong cookie" and that his real chest was seen on film; Khan's costume was specifically designed to display Montalbán's physique.
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 established the Nosotros ("We") Foundation in 1970 to advocate for Latinos in the movie and television industry.
Montalbán was a practicing Roman Catholic and once had said that his religion was the "most important thing" in his life. In 1998, Pope John Paul II made him a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (KSG), the highest honor a Roman Catholic lay person can receive from the Church.
He married Georgiana Young, who had a brief acting and modeling career, in 1944. They had four children: Laura, Mark, Anita and Victor. Georgiana was the half-sister of the actresses Sally Blane, Polly Ann Young, and movie and television star Loretta Young, who nicknamed her "Georgie". After sixty-three years of marriage, she died at the age of 83, on November 13, 2007, from undisclosed causes. Fourteen months later, Montalbán died of congestive heart failure on January 14, 2009 at his home in the Greater Los Angeles Area, at age 88.
Montalbán was a practicing Roman Catholic and once had said that his religion was the "most important thing" in his life. In 1998, Pope John Paul II made him a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (KSG), the highest honor a Roman Catholic lay person can receive from the Church.
He married Georgiana Young, who had a brief acting and modeling career, in 1944. They had four children: Laura, Mark, Anita and Victor. Georgiana was the half-sister of the actresses Sally Blane, Polly Ann Young, and movie and television star Loretta Young, who nicknamed her "Georgie". After sixty-three years of marriage, she died at the age of 83, on November 13, 2007, from undisclosed causes. Fourteen months later, Montalbán died of congestive heart failure on January 14, 2009 at his home in the Greater Los Angeles Area, at age 88.
For more information about Ricardo Montalban please visit: Wikipedia
Ricardo Montalban's Filmography
1943 Santa
1944 La Fuga
1947 Fiesta
1948 On an Island with You
1948 The Kissing Bandit
1949 Neptune's Daughter
1949 Border Incident
1949 Battleground
1950 Mystery Street
1950 Two Weeks With Love
1950 Right Cross
1951 Across the Wide Missouri
1951 Mark of the Renegade
1952 My Man and I
1953 Latin Lovers
1954 The Saracen Blade
1955 A Life in the Balance
1956 Three for Jamie Dawn
1957 Sayonara
1960 Let No Man Write My Epitaph
1962 Ernest Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man
1962 The Reluctant Saint
1963 Love Is a Ball
1964 Cheyenne Autumn
1965 The Money Trap
1966 Madame X
1966 The Singing Nun
1967 The Longest Hundred Miles
1968 Sol Madrid
1969 Sweet Charity
1971 The Deserter
1971 Escape from the Planet of the Apes
1972 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1973 The Train Robbers
1974 The Mark of Zorro
1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
1984 Cannonball Run II
1988 The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
2002 Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
2003 Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
2006 The Ant Bully
1944 La Fuga
1947 Fiesta
1948 On an Island with You
1948 The Kissing Bandit
1949 Neptune's Daughter
1949 Border Incident
1949 Battleground
1950 Mystery Street
1950 Two Weeks With Love
1950 Right Cross
1951 Across the Wide Missouri
1951 Mark of the Renegade
1952 My Man and I
1953 Latin Lovers
1954 The Saracen Blade
1955 A Life in the Balance
1956 Three for Jamie Dawn
1957 Sayonara
1960 Let No Man Write My Epitaph
1962 Ernest Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man
1962 The Reluctant Saint
1963 Love Is a Ball
1964 Cheyenne Autumn
1965 The Money Trap
1966 Madame X
1966 The Singing Nun
1967 The Longest Hundred Miles
1968 Sol Madrid
1969 Sweet Charity
1971 The Deserter
1971 Escape from the Planet of the Apes
1972 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1973 The Train Robbers
1974 The Mark of Zorro
1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
1984 Cannonball Run II
1988 The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
2002 Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
2003 Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
2006 The Ant Bully
Early Days Productions: Ricardo Montalban 11/06/2011
Full Movie: Desperate Mission (1969)
19th Century figure Joaquin Murietta is a formerly wealthy and respected California landowner. However, he has lost his land, his wife, and everything else he held dear. Embittered and questioning his previous faith in God and man, he joins a disparate group of men hired to convey a wealthy man's wife away from the bandit-ridden countryside to safety in San Francisco. Murietta discovers that the convoy is also carrying a treasure of great material and religious value. He finds himself challenged to decide what he believes, and what he should do, in the face of threats to himself, to the convoy, and to the people of southern California. Written by Charles Delacroix . - From the IMDB