Ricardo Montalban (born November 25, 1920 in Mexico City) is an actor.
Montalban's first role was on The 20th Century-Fox Hour in 1955. During the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the few working Hispanic actors. Many of his early roles were in Westerns, where he played character parts usually as the Latin lover.
In 1975 he was chosen as the television spokesman for the new Chrysler Cordoba . The car was successful and heavily advertised—his mellifluous delivery of a line praising its "rich Corinthian leather" upholstery became famous and was much parodied.
He then starred in the television program, Fantasy Island from 1978 to 1984. For a time the program was one of the most popular on television. His character, Mr. Roarke, and his sidekick Tattoo, were pop icons.
He played an entirely different role by appearing as Khan in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, which he reprised from a 1967 episode of Star Trek called Space Seed. He has appeared in many diverse films including The Naked Gun and two films from the Planet of the Apes series. He also appeared in the second Spy Kids film in 2002 and the third one in 2003.
Over the course of his long career, he has played roles or guest starred in dozens of television series. In 1994, after spinal surgery, Montalban was confined to a wheelchair.
He is married to Georgiana Young (née Georgiana Belzer), youngest half-sister of late star Loretta Young.
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