Biography
This page uses content from the Cesar Romero biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. (February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994) was a Cuban-American actor. He was born in New York to wealthy Cuban parents and played "Latin lovers" in films from the 1930s until the 1950s, usually in supporting roles. He starred as Cisco Kid in six westerns made between 1939 and 1941. Romero's Hollywood earnings allowed him to support his large family after his parents lost their sugar import business and suffered losses in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Romero lived on and off with various family members, especially his sister, for the rest of his life.
Romero's skill at both dancing and comedy can be seen in the classic 20th Century Fox films he starred in opposite Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable, such as A Night in Havana and Springtime in the Rockies, in the 1940s.
Romero served admirably in various capacities in the United States Coast Guard in the Pacific for several years during WWII.
In 1966, Romero achieved icon status when he played The Joker in ABC-TV's Batman television series. He refused to shave his trademark mustache and so it was covered with white makeup when playing the supervillain throughout the series' run. Romero also portrayed The Joker in the spinoff movie version of the show.
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 3 episodes.
Romero later appeared as Peter Stavros in the television series Falcon Crest (1985-1987).
Romero always claimed his grandfather on his mother's side was Cuban poet and patriot José Martí although his mother's parents were legally Carmen and Manuel Mantilla with Jose Martí as his godfather. There was some speculation that Maria was fathered by Martí who was a boarder in the Mantilla household but he never claimed Maria as his daughter in his lifetime. Romero was a believer in liberation theology. Romero, who never married despite proposing to at least one woman, was rumored to be openly gay, according to the more discreet standards of his generation. He was a mainstay of the Hollywood social circuit until his death in 1994.
Cesar Romero's cremated remains were interred at the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California [1].
Appearances
- The Shadow Laughs (1933)
- The Thin Man (1934)
- British Agent (1934)
- Cheating Cheaters (1934)
- Strange Wives (1934)
- A Dream Comes True (1935) (short subject)
- Clive of India (1935)
- The Good Fairy (1935)
- The Devil is a Woman (1935)
- Cardinal Richelieu (1935)
- Hold 'Em Yale (1935)
- Diamond Jim (1935)
- Metropolitan (1935)
- Rendezvous (1935)
- Show Them No Mercy! (1935)
- Love Before Breakfast (1936)
- Nobody's Fool (1936)
- Public Enemy's Wife (1936)
- Fifteen Maiden Lane (1936)
- She's Dangerous (1937)
- Armored Car (1937)
- Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
- Dangerously Yours (1937)
- Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) (Cameo)
- Happy Landing (1938)
- Always Goodbye (1938)
- Five of a Kind (1938)
- My Lucky Star (1938)
- Wife, Husband and Friend (1939)
- A Little Princess (1939)
- Return of the Cisco Kid (1939)
- Hollywood Hobbies (1939) (short subject)
- Frontier Marshal (1939)
- Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939)
- The Cisco Kid and the Lady (1939)
- He Married His Wife (1940)
- Viva Cisco Kid (1940)
- Lucky Cisco Kid (1940)
- The Gay Caballaro (1940)
- Dance Hall (1941)
- Romance of the Rio Grande (1941)
- Tall, Dark and Handsome (1941)
- Ride on Vaquero (1941)
- The Great American Broadcast (1941)
- Week-End in Havana (1941)
- A Gentleman at Heart (1942)
- Tales of Manhattan (1942)
- Orchestra Wives (1942)
- Springtime in the Rockies (1942)
- Coney Island (1943)
- Wintertime (1943)
- Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Victory Show (1946) (short subject)
- Carnival in Costa Rica (1947)
- Captain from Castile (1947)
- Deep Waters (1948)
- Julia Misbehaves (1948)
- That Lady in Ermine (1948)
- The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
- Screen Snapshots: Motion Picture Mothers, Inc. (1949) (short subject)
- Love That Brute (1950)
- Once a Thief (1950)
- Happy Go Lovely (1951)
- Lost Continent (1951)
- FBI Girl (1951)
- The Jungle (1952)
- Scotland Yard Inspector (1952)
- Street of Shadows (1953)
- Prisoners of the Casbah (1953)
- Vera Cruz (1954)
- The Americano (1955)
- The Racers (1955)
- The Heart and the Sword (1956)
- The Leather Saint (1956)
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
- The Story of Mankind (1957)
- Villa!! (1958)
- My Private Secretaries (1959)
- Ocean's Eleven (1960)
- Pepe (1960) (Cameo)
- The Seven Women from Hell (1961)
- We Shall Return (1962)
- If a Man Answers (1962)
- Saint Mike (1963)
- The Castilian (1963)
- Donovan's Reef (1963)
- A House Is Not a Home (1964)
- Two on a Guillotine (1965)
- Sergeant Dead Head (1965)
- Marriage on the Rocks (1965)
- Broken Sabre (1966)
- Batman (1966)
- Once Upon a Wheel (1968) (documentary)
- Madigan's Millions (1968)
- Hot Millions (1968)
- Skidoo (1968)
- Target: Harry (1969)
- A Talent for Loving (1969)
- Crooks and Coronets (1969)
- Midas Run (1969)
- Latitude Zero (1969)
- The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
- The Red, White, and Black (1970)
- Alias Smith and Jones (1970/71)
- Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971)
- The Last Generation (1971)
- The Proud and the Damned (1972)
- Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972)
- The Haunted Mouth (1974) (short subject)
- The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974)
- The Strongest Man in the World (1975)
- Timber Tramps (1975)
- Carioca Tiger (1976)
- Mission to Glory: A True Story (1977)
- Lust in the Dust (1985)
- Flesh and Bullets (1985)
- Mortuary Academy (1988)
- Judgement Day (1988)
- Simple Justice (1990)
- A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
- Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business (1995) (documentary)
Trivia
- The sinister screeching laugh associated with the Joker began with Romero. Upon first reading the script for Batman he grew so amused with the story that he began to laugh out loud. The producers asked him to use the laugh whenever he taunted the Dynamic Duo. As a result it became so associated with the Joker that it became the standard in later animated shows and the Batman movies. It even became illustrated in the comic.
- In the popular "Homestar Runner" internet cartoons, Strong Bad dresses as Romero as the Joker.
External links
- [2] The 1966 Batman TV Villains - Cesar Romero
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