Ricardo Montalban, best known for his portrayals of Mr. Roarke of Fantasy Island and Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek, passed away today at the tender age of 88. Amusingly enough, we recently watched one of his lesser-known movies, Mystery Street, which was recently on Turner Classic Movies. It was certainly odd to hear someone with a Latino accent playing a Cape Cod police detective in the 1950s. It was actually a reasonably good movie, and it demonstrated that Montalban had more talent than you might guess based only on his more recognizable roles.
I find myself more and more drawn to watching older movies from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Another recent find was My Man Godfrey. Those old films beat the hell out of the schlock Hollywood puts out these days.
But in some ways most of the most notable things for me about Montalban is that he remained married to his one and only wife for 63 years; she preceded him in death in 2007. How unlike so many others in Hollywood.
I find myself more and more drawn to watching older movies from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Another recent find was My Man Godfrey. Those old films beat the hell out of the schlock Hollywood puts out these days.
But in some ways most of the most notable things for me about Montalban is that he remained married to his one and only wife for 63 years; she preceded him in death in 2007. How unlike so many others in Hollywood.
We too have enjoyed the older movies. Trying to introduce the kids to many of those grand old films was made a little easier by slipping in all the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby fun films and then a little later the Jerry Lewis Dean Martin collection. It's all great fun and a wonderful break from what passes for "good" movies today.
ReplyDeleteRIP Ricardo Montalban -- he was a good actor and was the most memorable guest on Star Trek.
73, Jeff KE9V
in retrospect, i think Dos Equis should have hired Ricardo Montalban to do a few ads for them as their "most interesting man in the world" (he has a Spanish accent too, which fits perfectly)
ReplyDelete