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Thread: R.I.P. Ricardo Montalban
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R.I.P. Ricardo Montalban
Just this morning I was watching Star Trek 2:The Wrath of Khan,and now this...
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituari...,4189863.story
Ricardo Montalban, the suave leading man who was one of the first Mexican-born actors to make it big in Hollywood and who was best known for his role as Mr. Roarke on ABC's "Fantasy Island," has died. He was 88.
Montalban died Wednesday morning at his Los Angeles home of complications related to old age, said his son-in-law, Gilbert Smith.
"He paved the way for being outspoken about the images and roles that Latinos were playing in movies," said Luis Reyes, author of "Hispanics in Hollywood" (2000).
On Wednesday, actor Edward James Olmos called Montalban "one of the true giants of arts and culture."
"He was a stellar artist and a consummate person and performer with a tremendous understanding of culture . . . and the ability to express it in his work," Olmos told The Times.
After MGM dropped Montalban's contract in 1953, he initially turned to the stage in a touring production of George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell," playing the title character and co-starring with Agnes Moorehead. He continued to appear in films and, in the 1970s and '80s, became a commercial spokesman for Chrysler. He was particularly known -- and later widely spoofed -- for his silky allusion to the "soft Corinthian leather" of the Chrysler Cordoba, although no such leather actually existed.
Also in the late 1970s, he won an Emmy for his performance as Chief Satangkai in the television miniseries "How the West Was Won."
The Chrysler ads, along with his role in "Don Juan in Hell," led to producer Aaron Spelling offering Montalban "Fantasy Island," which renewed his career and gave him financial stability.
While making "Fantasy Island," Montalban also gave one of his best movie performances -- as Khan Noonian Singh in the " Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982), a follow-up to a beloved 1967 "Star Trek" television episode, "Space Seed," that also featured Montalban.
As Khan, Montalban was deliciously over the top, vowing to wreak revenge on Star Trek Admiral James T. Kirk: "I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nivea, and 'round the Antares maelstrom, and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up."
New York Times movie critic Janet Maslin wrote that Montalban, "with his fierce profile, long white hair, manful decolletage and space-age jewelry looks like either the world's oldest rock star or its hippest Indian chief." And New Yorker magazine critic Pauline Kael said Montalban's performance as Khan "was the only validation he has ever had of his power to command the big screen."
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01-14-2009, 06:36 PM #2j7wild Guest
I have never watched Fantasy Island.
He will always be Khan to me, the man who came closer than anyone else in the Universe to kick James T. Kirk's a$$!!
oh and his Chrysler Commercials in the 80s motivated me to make my first car purchase a Chrysler!!
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...rch_type=&aq=f
R.I.P. Mr. Montalban.
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01-14-2009, 07:15 PM #4
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Khan!!!!!
RIPYou're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't be sure. But it doesn't matter - because we'll be together.
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First it was Patrick McGoohan dead today and now Ricardo Montalban too? And yet Dane Cook and Paris Hilton are still alive. What is wrong with this world?
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01-14-2009, 08:23 PM #6j7wild Guest
oh no, not Patrick!!
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that sucks. he was a great actor. i remember him (as well as tattoo) from fantasy island and loved both performances of Khan. he also played "grandfather" in the Spy Kids movies... he will be missed.
"I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone …
but they've always worked for me,"
Hunter S.Thompson
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Rest in peace mr. Montalban.
I'm a mog, half man, half dog, I am my own best friend.
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01-14-2009, 11:03 PM #9j7wild Guest
someone wake me when that whiny Idiot Kanye West dies
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