Jose Ramon Gil Samaniego, known professionally as Ramon Novarro, was a Mexican-American actor.
18 Facts About Ramon Novarro
2.
Ramon Novarro began his career in silent films in 1917 and eventually became a leading man and one of the top box office attractions of the 1920s and early 1930s.
3.
Ramon Novarro is recognized as the first Latin American actor to succeed in Hollywood.
4.
Ramon Novarro's grandfather, Mariano Samaniego, was a well-known physician in Juarez.
5.
Thirteen children were born there: Emilio; Guadalupe; Rosa; Ramon Novarro; Leonor; Mariano; Luz; Antonio; Jose; a stillborn child; Carmen; Angel and Eduardo.
6.
Ramon Novarro was a second cousin of the Mexican actresses Dolores del Rio and Andrea Palma.
7.
Ramon Novarro began his film career in 1917, playing bit parts, supplementing his income by working as a singing waiter, a taxi dancer and as a dancer in revues choreographed by Ernest Belcher.
8.
Ramon Novarro was popular as a swashbuckler in action roles, and considered one of the great romantic lead actors of his day.
9.
Ramon Novarro appeared with Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg and with Joan Crawford in Across to Singapore.
10.
Ramon Novarro starred with Dorothy Janis in The Pagan, with Greta Garbo in Mata Hari, with Myrna Loy in The Barbarian and opposite Lupe Velez in Laughing Boy.
11.
When his contract with MGM Studios expired in 1935 and the studio did not renew it, Ramon Novarro continued to act sporadically, appearing in films for Republic Pictures, a Mexican religious drama, and a French comedy.
12.
Ramon Novarro kept busy on television, appearing in NBC's The High Chaparral as late as 1968.
13.
At the peak of his success in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Ramon Novarro was earning more than US$100,000 per film.
14.
Ramon Novarro invested some of his income in real estate, and his Hollywood Hills residence is one of the more renowned designs by Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright.
15.
Ramon Novarro was troubled all his life by his conflicted feelings toward his Roman Catholic religion and his homosexuality.
16.
Ramon Novarro was romantically involved with Hollywood journalist Herbert Howe, who was his publicist in the late 1920s, and with a wealthy man from San Francisco, Noel Sullivan.
17.
Ramon Novarro died as a result of asphyxiation, having choked to death on his own blood after being beaten.
18.
Ramon Novarro is buried in Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles, California.