Ricardo Montalban dead at 88

[TooFunny]

[SIZE="4"]Versatile actor Ricardo Montalban dies at 88
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LOS ANGELES - 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 TV's "Fantasy Island," has died. He was 88.

Montalban died Wednesday morning at his Los Angeles home of complications related to old age.

Within the entertainment industry, Montalban was widely respected for his efforts to create opportunities for Latinos, although he and others believed that his activism hurt his career. In 1970, he founded the nonprofit Nosotros Foundation to improve the image and increase employment of Latinos in Hollywood.

Montalban was already a star of Mexican movies in the 1940s when MGM cast him as a bullfighter opposite Esther Williams in "Fiesta" and put him under contract. He would go on to appear alongside such movie greats as Clark Gable and Lana Turner.

When major film roles dried up for him in the 1970s, he turned to stage and eventually TV, where he was familiar to millions as the mysterious host whose signature line, “Welcome to Fantasy Island,” opened the hit ABC show that aired from 1978 to 1984.

While "Fantasy Island" was renewing Montalban's career and giving him financial stability, he also won an Emmy for his performance as Chief Satangkai in the 1978 ABC miniseries "How the West Was Won."

In the 1970s and '80s, Montalban was also familiar to TV viewers as a commercial spokesman for Chrysler. He was later widely spoofed for his silky allusion to the “soft Corinthian leather” of the Chrysler Cordoba, although no such leather actually existed.

While making "Fantasy Island," Montalban also gave one of his best movie performances -- as Khan Noonien Singh in the “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982), a follow-up to a beloved 1967 “Star Trek” television episode that also featured Montalban.

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."

While making the 1951 Gable western "Across the Wide Missouri," Montalban fell from a horse and injured his spine. The injury caused him to walk with a limp, which he tried to mask during performances. In recent years, he was confined to a wheelchair.

He played a Kabuki theater actor in 1957's "Sayonara" and co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in the 1966 film "The Singing Nun." Decades later, he played the evil tycoon in the 1988 comedy hit "Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" and had a prominent role as the grandfather in "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" (2003).

Later TV appearances included the "Dynasty" spinoff "The Colbys" in the 1980s, and he voiced Señor Senior Sr. on the Disney Channel's animated series "Kim Possible" that debuted in 2002.

But "Fantasy Island" created his lasting image.

Elegantly attired in a white suit and black tie, Montalban created such an iconic -- albeit somewhat kitschy -- figure that he often reprised the character in subsequent films and television shows.

The deeply spiritual Montalban once said that the guiding force in his life was his Catholic faith. In 1998, Pope John Paul II made him a Knight Commander of St. Gregory, the highest honor bestowed upon non-clergy in the Roman Catholic Church.

Montalban is survived by two daughters, Laura Montalban and Anita Smith; two sons, Mark Montalban and Victor Montalban; and six grandchildren.

[url="http://www.videodetective.com/ActorDetails.aspx?performerid=6812"]clips from memorable film roles
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Chrysler Cordoba commercial: "Rich Corinthian Leather"

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Hilarious Zebonka parody of original commercial