The Associated Press is reporting that Mexican-born actor Ricardo Montalban has died on 14 January 2009. Born Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalban y Merino on 25 November 1920 in Mexico City, he will be remembered in sf for his roles in Fantasy Island and Star Trek, and he was also, for many years, a commercial spokesman for Chrysler.
As the enigmatic wish-fulfiller Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island, he allowed his guests to live out their greatest dreams or fantasies, usually with a moral lesson thrown in, because not all fantasies turn out as we imagine they will. And as the genetically engineered Khan Noonien Singh in the original Star Trek episode “Space Seed” and the second ST film, The Wrath of Khan, he was a worthy opponent for Capt. James Kirk and the Federation, as he tried to remake (or subjugate) the world in his own image. He apparently took a sub-standard salary for the film because he so enjoyed the role.
Montalban began his acting career in Mexican films, and then MGM brought him to Hollywood in 1946 to take the lead role opposite Esther Williams in Fiesta. He became a star in musicals of that era. Montalban also appeared on stage, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1958 for Jamaica. He won an Emmy Award in 1978 for Single Performance by a Supporting Actor (How the West Was Won), and the Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award in 1994.
His other genre roles include: The Ant Bully (2006), Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002), Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000), Heaven Help Us (1994), Wonder Woman (1974), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), Alice Through the Looking Glasss (1966), and The Wild Wild West (1966).
Montalban’s wife, Georgiana Young (whom he married in 1944), died in 2007. He is survived by their four children.