27 Facts About Cesar Romero

Cesar Romero was active in film, radio, and television for almost 60 years.

Cesar Romero was the first actor to play the character.

Cesar Romero's mother was said to be the biological daughter of Cuban national hero Jose Marti.

Cesar Romero, who referred to himself as "a Latin from Manhattan", lived on and off with various family members for the rest of his life.

In 1935, Cesar Romero played a leading role The Devil is a Woman opposite Marlene Dietrich.

Cesar Romero starred as the Cisco Kid in six westerns made between 1939 and 1941.

Cesar 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.

Cesar Romero played a minor role as Sinjin, a piano player in Glenn Miller's band, in the 1942 20th Century Fox musical Orchestra Wives.

Cesar Romero had a lead role as the Pathan rebel leader, Khoda Khan, in John Ford's British Raj-era action film Wee Willie Winkie starring Shirley Temple and Victor McLaglen and The Little Princess with Temple.

Cesar Romero sometimes played the leading man, for example in Allan Dwan's 15 Maiden Lane opposite Claire Trevor, as well as winning the key role of the Doc Holliday character in Dwan's acclaimed Wyatt Earp saga Frontier Marshal starring Randolph Scott and Nancy Kelly three years later.

Cesar Romero portrayed Don Diego de la Vega's maternal uncle in a number of Season 2 Zorro episodes.

Cesar Romero performed the mambo with Gisele MacKenzie on her NBC variety show, The Gisele MacKenzie Show.

Cesar Romero played "Don Carlos", a Card sharp on the episode, "The Honorable Don Charlie Story" of NBC's Wagon Train.

In 1959, Cesar Romero was cast as Joaquin in the episode "Caballero" from The Texan, and on September 26 of that year, he hosted the Cuban installment of John Gunther's High Road.

Cesar Romero refused to shave his moustache for the role, and so the supervillain's white face makeup was simply smeared over it throughout the series' run and in the 1966 film.

Cesar Romero later portrayed Peter Stavros on Falcon Crest.

Cesar Romero appeared in a sixth-season episode of The Golden Girls, where he played a suitor named Tony Delvecchio for Sophia.

Cesar Romero appreciated and said he liked Lodge's strong anti-Communist stance in South Vietnam where Lodge was at the time the United States ambassador.

Later that year, Cesar Romero supported Barry Goldwater in the general election.

Also in 1964, Cesar Romero was very much involved in the US Senate race in California that pitted one of Cesar Romero's best friends and fellow actor, Republican nominee George Murphy, in his bid to oust then-Senator Pierre Salinger, a Democrat.

Cesar Romero appealed to disappointed Cranston backers after the primary to support Murphy.

Cesar Romero's urging helped Salinger lose a race no one thought could be lost.

Cesar Romero employed other Hollywood stars to try to help Murphy win re-election in 1970.

Cesar Romero joined with fellow actors and actresses in lobbying the United States Congress to present the then-dying John Wayne with a Congressional Gold Medal for his service to the nation.

Cesar Romero never married and had no children, but made frequent appearances at Hollywood events escorting actresses, such as Joan Crawford, Linda Darnell, Barbara Stanwyck, Lucille Ball, Ann Sheridan, Jane Wyman and Ginger Rogers; he was almost always described in interviews and articles as a "confirmed bachelor".

On January 1,1994, at age 86, Cesar Romero died from complications of a blood clot while being treated for bronchitis and pneumonia at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California.

Cesar Romero's body was cremated and the ashes were interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.