16 Facts About Nico Minardos

Nico Minardos appeared in "Have Gun Will Travel" S2 E19 "The Monster" as Carlos.

Nico Minardos was cast as an Italian, Giangiacomo, in the 1965 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Sad Sicilian".

Nico Minardos appeared in an episode of Barnaby Jones titled "The Loose Connection".

In 1975, Nico Minardos starred in and produced Assault on Agathon based on the book by Alan Caillou.

Nico Minardos obtained financing for the film from Kjell Qvale, a Bay Area-based automotive entrepreneur who was then the majority shareholder in Jensen Motors.

Nico Minardos had approached Qvale for a product placement deal to use a Jensen Interceptor during filming but ultimately convinced Qvale to finance the entire movie.

Nico Minardos was born Nicholas Minardos in Greece and emigrated to the United States permanently in 1954; he became a naturalized citizen in 1960.

Nico Minardos was married twice, first briefly in the mid-1950s to the former Deborah Jean Smith.

On September 28,1966, Nico Minardos, who was co-starring with actor Eric Fleming in an MGM-TV movie filming on location in Peru to be titled Selva Alta, was involved in a canoeing mishap on the Huallaga River in which Fleming drowned.

Nico Minardos was caught in an FBI sting operation in New York and was indicted by then-US Attorney Rudy Giuliani on charges of conspiracy to illegally ship arms to Iran.

Nico Minardos was represented by attorneys William Kunstler and Ron Kuby in this case.

Nico Minardos was interviewed by Mike Wallace for a segment of the show 60 Minutes regarding his role in the case.

Nico Minardos traded his home in Beverly Hills for a sailing yacht in Florida, which he outfitted and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to his Greek homeland with a crew that included his son George.

Nico Minardos retired to Fort Lauderdale, Florida during the 1990s and 2000s, but moved to Southern California in 2009 after suffering a stroke.

Nico Minardos died in 2011 in Woodland Hills, California at age 81.

Nico Minardos was the subject of a 2010 documentary about his life titled Finding Nico, produced and directed by his godson Owen Prell, whose father, Donald Prell, was a longtime friend of Minardos from their bachelor days in Los Angeles in the 1950s.