Watch Ricardo Montalban Online

Montalban was born in Mexico City, the son of Ricarda (nee Merino) and Jenaro Montalban, a store manager. He had a brother, actor Carlos Montalbán, and a sister, Carmen. He is a practicing Roman Catholic and has said that his religion is the "most important thing" in his life. He remains a Mexican citizen by choice, having never taken out citizenship in the United States.

He married Georgiana Young, an actress, in 1944; they had four children. She was half-sister of the late actresses Sally Blane, Polly Ann Young, and Oscar-winner Loretta Young, who nicknamed her "Georgie". Georgiana Young de Montalbán died on November 13, 2007, aged 84, of undisclosed causes. She is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, Section EE, #21.

Montalban 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 few 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.

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 its "soft Corinthian leather" upholstery, often misquoted as "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.

Montalban'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 well known role was that of Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which was a reprisal of his role in the 1967 episode of Star Trek entitled "Space Seed". There were some questions initially as to whether Montalbán 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 by an episode of the "Biography" series about him, in which both William Shatner and one of Montalban's children (a 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 the 1970s.

Montalban has appeared in many diverse films including The Naked Gun as well as two films from both the Planet of the Apes and Spy Kids series. In addition, he has appeared in multiple musicals, such as 1966's The Singing Nun, also starring Debbie Reynolds. Over the course of his long career, he has played lead roles or guest starred in dozens of television series. Since 1993, Montalbán has had to use a wheelchair after a long-unresolved spinal injury from the 1951 film Across the Wide Missouri recurred.

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

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

Montalban did a voiceover for a Taco Bell commercial that aired in 2007 during Super Bowl XLI. In the commercial, one lion suggests to another to roll his Rs in a manner that is "sexy, like Ricardo Montalbán" while pronouncing carne asada. This segues to a voiceover featuring the actor.

• Five Were Chosen (1942) (a Spanish version was filmed the following year)
• The Twig of Seville(1942)
• The Reason of the Fault(1943)
• Santa(1943)
• Flight (1944)
• Cadets of the Navy (1945)
• We(1945)
• The Hour of Truth(1945)
• The House of the Fox(1945)
• Pepita Jimenez(1946)
• Ranch Fantasy(1947)
• Fiesta(1947)
• On an Island with You(1948)
• The Kissing Bandit(1948)
• Neptune's Daughter(1949)
• Border Incident(1949)
• Battleground (1949)
• Mystery Street(1950)
• Right Cross (1950)
• Two Weeks with Love (1950)
• Mark of the Renegade (1951)
• Across the Wide Missouri(1951)
• The Million Dollar Nickel(1952) (short subject)
• My Man and I (1952)
• Sombrero(1953)
• Latin Lovers (1953)
• The Saracen Blade(1954)
• Untouched(1954)
• A Life in the Balance (1955)
• The Queen of Babylon(1955)
• Three for Jamie Dawn(1956)
• Desert Warrior(1957)
• Sayonara(1957)
• Let No Man Write My Epitaph(1960)
• Rage of the Buccaneers (1961)
• Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man(1962)
• The Reluctant Saint (1962)
• Love Is a Ball(1963)
• Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
• Good Night, New Year (1964)
• The Money Trap(1965)
• The Singing Nun(1966)
• Madame X(1966)
• Sol Madrid(1968)
• Blue(1968)
• Sweet Charity (1969)
• The Deserter(1971)
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
• Sentinels of Silence(1971) (short subject)
• Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
• The Train Robbers (1973)
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
• Joe Panther (1976)
• Mission to Glory: A True Story (1977)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan(1982)
• Cannonball Run II (1984)
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
• Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
• Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over(2003)
• The Ant Bully (2006)(voice)

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