Ricardo Montalbán | |
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Montalbán as Mario Morales in Fiesta (1947)
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Born |
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino November 25, 1920 Mexico City, Mexico |
Died | January 14, 2009 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
(aged 88)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1941–2009 |
Spouse(s) | Georgiana Belzer (m. 1944; her death 2007) |
Children | 4 |
Relatives | Carlos Montalbán (brother) |
Awards |
Emmy Award (1978) Screen Actors Guild (1993) Hollywood Walk of Fame |
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG (/ˌmɒntəlˈbɑːn/; Spanish pronunciation: [montalˈβan]; November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009), was a Mexican actor. His career spanned seven decades, during which he became known for many different roles. During the 1970s, he was a spokesman in automobile advertisements for Chrysler, including those in which he extolled the "soft Corinthian leather" used for the Cordoba's interior.
From 1977 to 1984, Montalbán played Mr. Roarke on the television series Fantasy Island. He played Khan Noonien Singh on the original Star Trek series beginning in 1967 and the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). He won an Emmy Award for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won (1978), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993. In his eighties, he provided voices for animated films and commercials, and later he appeared as Grandfather Valentin in the Spy Kids franchise.
Montalbán was born on November 25, 1920 in Mexico City and grew up in Torreón, the son of Spanish immigrants Ricarda Merino Jiménez and Genaro Balbino Montalbán Busano, a store manager. who raised him as a Roman Catholic. He was born with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in his spine. Montalbán had a sister, Carmen, and two brothers, Pedro and Carlos. 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.