Cesar Romero

Cesar Romero
Romero as photographed by Allan Warren in 1973.
Born	Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. February 15, 1907(1907-02-15) New York City, New York, United States
Died	January 1, 1994(1994-01-01) (aged 86) Santa Monica, California, United States
Cause of death	Pneumonia
Nationality	American
Other names	Butch, Latin from Manhattan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1933–90

Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. (February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994) was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in costume dramas, characters in light domestic comedies, and as The Joker in television's Batman series.

Early life

Romero as part of the deck crew aboard the USS Cavalier.

Romero was born in New York to an Italian-born father who was an importer-exporter of sugar refining machinery and a Cuban mother who was a concert singer.^{[citation needed]} They both immigrated from Cuba. That lifestyle, however, changed dramatically when his parents lost their sugar import business and suffered losses in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Fortunately, Romero's Hollywood earnings allowed him to support his large family, all of whom followed him to the West Coast, years later. Romero lived on and off with various family members, especially his sister, for the rest of his life.

In October 1942, he voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard and served in the Pacific Theater. He reported aboard the Coast Guard-manned assault transport USS Cavalier in November, 1943. According to a press release from the period he saw action during the invasions of Tinian and Saipan. The same article mentioned that he preferred to be a regular part of the crew and was eventually promoted to the rank of Chief Boatswain's Mate.^[1]

Career

In Public Enemy's Wife (1936)

Romero played "Latin lovers" in films from the 1930s until the 1950s, usually in supporting roles. He starred as The Cisco Kid in six westerns made between 1939 and 1941. Romero danced and performed comedy in the 20th Century Fox films he starred in opposite Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable, such as Week-End in Havana and Springtime in the Rockies, in the 1940s.

In The Thin Man (1934), Romero played a villainous supporting role opposite the film's main star William Powell. Many of Romero's films from this early period saw him cast in small character parts, such as Italian gangsters and East Indian princes. He also appeared in a comic turn as a subversive opponent to Frank Sinatra and his crew in Ocean's Eleven.

20th Century Fox, along with mogul Darryl Zanuck, personally selected Romero to co-star with Tyrone Power in the Technicolor historical epic, Captain from Castile (1947), directed by Henry King. While Power played a fictionalized character, Romero played Hernan Cortez, a historical Conquistador in Spain's conquest of the Americas.

Television

Among his many television credits, Romero appeared several times on NBC's The Martha Raye Show in the middle 1950s. He played the role of Don Diego de la Vega's uncle in a number of Season Two Zorro episodes.^[2] In 1958, he guest starred as Ramon Valdez, a South American businessman, who excels at doing the Cha-Cha with Barbara Eden in her syndicated romantic comedy, How to Marry a Millionaire in the episode "The Big Order". He performed the mambo with Gisele MacKenzie on her NBC variety show, The Gisele MacKenzie Show. Also in 1957, he guest-starred on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour on the first episode of the seventh season.

On January 16, 1958, Romero appeared on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.^[3] In 1965, Romero played the head of THRUSH in France in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ("The Never Never Affair").

Romero in his role as The Joker in Batman

From 1966 to 1968, Romero played The Joker in ABC's television series, Batman. He refused to shave his mustache and so it was covered with white makeup when playing the supervillain throughout the series' run, and in the spinoff 1966 film.

In the 1970s, Romero portrayed the absent father of the Freddie Prinze character Chico Rodriguez in Chico and the Man, and later Peter Stavros in the television series Falcon Crest (1985–1987). Among Romero's guest star work in the 1970s was a recurring role on the western comedy Alias Smith and Jones, starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy. Romero played Señor Armendariz, a Mexican rancher feuding with Patrick McCreedy (Burl Ives), the owner of a ranch on the opposite side of the border. He appeared in three episodes. He also appeared as Count Dracula on Rod Serling's Night Gallery, and guest-starred in an episode of Bewitched.

Apart from these television roles, Romero appeared as A.J. Arno, a small-time criminal who continually opposes Dexter Riley (played by Kurt Russell) and his schoolmates of Medfield College in a series of films by Walt Disney Productions in the 1970s. He also appeared in a sixth-season episode of The Golden Girls, where he played a suitor named Tony Delvechio for Sophia who disappoints her when she tells him "I love you" after a night of passion and he doesn't return the sentiment.

Personal life

Romero always claimed his grandfather on his mother's side was Cuban poet and patriot José Martí.

Romero never married, but made regular appearances on the Hollywood social circuit in the company of attractive actresses; however, he was almost always described in interviews and articles as a "confirmed bachelor". ^[4][5]

Romero died in 1994 from bronchitis and pneumonia. His ashes were interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery in South Los Angeles community of Inglewood, California.

Filmography

• The Shadow Laughs (1933)
• Strange Wives (1934)
• Cheating Cheaters (1934)
• British Agent (1934)
• The Thin Man (1934)
• Show Them No Mercy! (1935)
• Rendezvous (1935)
• Diamond Jim (1935)
• Hold 'Em Yale (1935)
• Cardinal Richelieu (1935)
• The Devil is a Woman (1935)
• Metropolitan (1935)
• The Good Fairy (1935)
• A Dream Comes True (1935)
• Clive of India (1935)
• Fifteen Maiden Lane (1936)
• Public Enemy's Wife (1936)
• Nobody's Fool (1936)
• Love Before Breakfast (1936)
• Dangerously Yours (1937)
• Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
• Armored Car (1937)
• She's Dangerous (1937)
• Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937)
• My Lucky Star (1938)
• Five of a Kind (1938)
• Always Goodbye (1938)
• Happy Landing (1938)
• The Cisco Kid and the Lady (1939)
• Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939)
• Frontier Marshal (1939)
• Return of the Cisco Kid (1939)
• A Little Princess (1939)
• Wife, Husband and Friend (1939)
• Hollywood Hobbies (1939)
• The Gay Caballaro (1940)
• Lucky Cisco Kid (1940)
• Viva Cisco Kid (1940)
• He Married His Wife (1940)
• Week-End in Havana (1941)
• The Great American Broadcast (1941)
• Ride on Vaquero (1941)
• Tall, Dark and Handsome (1941)
• Romance of the Rio Grande (1941)
• Dance Hall (1941)
• Springtime in the Rockies (1942)
• Orchestra Wives (1942)
• Tales of Manhattan (1942)
• A Gentleman at Heart (1942)
• Wintertime (1943)
• Coney Island (1943)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Victory Show (1946)
• Captain from Castile (1947)
• Carnival in Costa Rica (1947)
• That Lady in Ermine (1948)
• Julia Misbehaves (1948)
• Deep Waters (1948)
• The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
• Screen Snapshots: Motion Picture Mothers, Inc. (1949)
• Love That Brute (1950)
• Once a Thief (1950)
• FBI Girl (1951)
• Lost Continent (1951)
• Happy Go Lovely (1951)
• Scotland Yard Inspector (1952)
• The Jungle (1952)
• Prisoners of the Casbah (1953)
• Street of Shadows (1953)
• Vera Cruz (1954)
• The Racers (1955)
• The Americano (1955)
• Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
• The Leather Saint (1956)
• The Heart and the Sword (1956)
• The Story of Mankind (1957)
• Villa!! (1958)
• My Private Secretaries (1959)
• Ocean's Eleven (1960)
• Pepe (1960)
• Five Fingers in episode "Counterfeit", never aired on NBC (1960)
• The Seven Women from Hell (1961)
• The Runaway (1961)
• If a Man Answers (1962)
• We Shall Return (1962)
• Donovan's Reef (1963)
• The Castilian (1963)
• Saint Mike (1963)
• A House Is Not a Home (1964)
• Marriage on the Rocks (1965)
• Sergeant Dead Head (1965)
• Two on a Guillotine (1965)
• Batman (1966–1968)
• Broken Sabre (1966)
• Hot Millions (1968)
• Madigan's Millions (1968)
• Once Upon a Wheel (1968)
• Skidoo (1968)
• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
• Latitude Zero (1969)
• Midas Run (1969)
• Crooks and Coronets (1969)
• A Talent for Loving (1969)
• Target: Harry (1969)
• The Red, White, and Black (1970)
• Alias Smith and Jones (1970–1971)
• The Last Generation (1971)
• Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971)
• Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972)
• The Proud and the Damned (1972)
• The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974)
• The Haunted Mouth (1974)
• Timber Tramps (1975)
• The Strongest Man in the World (1975)
• Carioca Tiger (1976)
• Mission to Glory: A True Story (1977)
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
• Flesh and Bullets (1985)
• Lust in the Dust (1985)
• Judgment Day (1988)

References

Biography portal

1. ^ Cesar Romero – USCG: Frequently Asked Questions
2. ^ Bill Cotter. "Zorro Episodes Descriptions Second Season: 1958-1959". Bill Cotter. http://www.billcotter.com/zorro/episodes-second-season.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-10. 
3. ^ 16, 1958 "The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford". ernieford.com. http://www.ernieford.com/FordShow2-3.htm#January 16, 1958. Retrieved November 25, 2010. 
4. ^ Boze, Hadleigh (1996), Hollywood gays, Barricade Books, ISBN 1569800839 
5. ^ Hernandez, David (2010), Broken Face in the Mirror, Dorrance Publishing, p. 130, ISBN 1434964841 

External links

• Cesar Romero at the Internet Movie Database
• Cesar Romero at the Internet Broadway Database
• Cesar Romero at Find a Grave
• Cesar Romero in "Jean Boone - Interview with Cast of Batman, The Movie (1966)" from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image
• Steve Starr (2006). "Cesar Romero". Entertainment Magazine Online. http://emol.org/film/archives/romero/index.html. Retrieved 2007-05-20. 

Persondata
Name	Romero, Cesar
Alternative names	Romero, Cesar Julio, Jr.
Short description	Film and television actor
Date of birth	1907-02-15
Place of birth	New York City, New York, United States
Date of death	1994-01-01
Place of death	Santa Monica, California, United States