Ricardo Montalban Is Gone

Actor Ricardo Montalban has left us.  He was 88.

To younger audiences, he was grandfather Cortez in Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Souls, also appearing in Spy Kids 3.

To most around the world, he was Mr. Roarke, your sometimes enigmatic and surely magical host on Fantasy Island (“Places, everyone. Places.”).  And of course, he was, as William Shatner’s Captain Kirk screamed in rage, “Khaaannnn!” — Khan Noonian Singh — in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, reprising a role he’d played in the “Space Seed” episode of the original Star Trek TV series in the 1960s.

Born in Mexico City and starting the Mexican film industry, he began his Hollywood career in the late 1940s — an MGM contract player as Hollywood’s great Latin lover, opposite the likes of Lana Turner, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds,  June Allyson,  Cyd Charisse, Shelly Winters, Yvonne De Carlo, and others.

He was suave and ever-charming, yet he also had wonderful warmth about him (except when seeking vengeance as Khan, of course).

He even made TV ads for the Chrysler Cordoba classy, as he waxed on about the “fine Corinthian leather.”

After a spinal operation left him paralyzed, he was confined to a wheelchair or used a walker when able from 1993 till his death, yet he still worked as a voice actor in animation on programs that included Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Kim Possible, and Dora the Explorer.

Montalban won an Emmy Award in 1978 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993. In 1970, he founded the nonprofit Nosotros Foundation to improve the image and increase employment of Latinos in Hollywood.

Actor Edward James Olmos said Ricardo Montalban was “one of the true giants of arts and culture.”