#ChicanoHistory + #ManCrushMonday Ricardo Montalbán was the epitome of continental elegance, charm and grace on film and television and in the late 1940s and early 1950s reinvigorated the Latin Lover style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority actors of his time, he fought to upscale the Latin (particularly, Mexican) image in Hollywood. His noted militancy may have cost him a number of roles along the way, but he gained respect and a solid reputation as a mover and shaker within the acting community while providing wider-range opportunities for Spanish-speaking actors via Los Angeles theater. Born in Mexico City on November 25, 1920, the youngest of four children to Castilian Spanish immigrants, Ricarda Merino and Jenaro Montalbán. His father was a dry goods store owner. Montalbán moved to Los Angeles as a teen and lived with his much older brother Carlos Montalbán, who was then pursuing show business as both an actor and dancer. Ricardo attended Fairfax High School in Hollywood and was noticed in a student play but passed on a screen test that was offered. A respectable career as the handsome, heroic type developed, but it was during the filming of Across the Wide Missouri (1951) that he suffered a serious injury to his spine after he slipped and fell off a running horse, which resulted in a permanent limp. Frustrated at Hollywoods portrayal of Mexicans, he helped to found, and gave great support, attention and distinction to, the image-building NOSOTROS organization, a Los Angeles theatre-based company designed for Latinos working in the industry. Nosotros and the Montalban foundation eventually bought the historic Doolittle Theater in Hollywood and renamed it the Ricardo Montalban Theatre in 2004. It became the first major theater facility in the United States to carry the name of a Latino performing artist. A class act who was beloved in the industry for his gentle and caring nature, the long-term effects of his spinal injury eventually confined him to a wheelchair in his later years. He died in his Los Angeles home of complications from old age on January 14, 2009 at age 88. His wife having died in 2007, he was survived by their two daughters and two sons: Laura, Anita, Victor and Mark. Like - > Being Chicano < - For More! #BeChicano #BeLatino #DigiLatino
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:00:00 +0000
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