Biographies: Ramon Novarro - Actor

Biographies

 [1 Content]

---

A Mexican-American film, theater, and television actor, born in Durango, Mexico as Jose Ramón Gil Samaniego. He began his career in silent films in 1917, eventually becoming a leading actor and one of the major box office stars of the 1920s and 1930s, and was promoted by MGM as a Latin lover. He worked as a ballet dancer, piano teacher, and singing waiter, after which he became a film extra in 1917. He was then cast by director Rex Ingram as Rupert in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922). As his career began to fade fast, he left MGM in 1935, worked on Broadway, and later on, he mostly appeared in cameos in films. He won a Golden Globe Special Award in 1960 as a silent film star, and he also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for his film work. His credits include Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), The Red Lily (1924), and The Big Steal (1949). He was troubled throughout his life because of his conflicting feelings towards his Roman Catholic religion, and because of his homosexuality, which led to his addiction to alcohol, and in 1968, he was severely beaten in his home in North Hollywood by two young brothers, who heard that he kept thousands of dollars in his house, but they found nothing. He died of asphyxiation at the age of 69.

• 28 November 2023
• Shaimaa Saied