|
Leo Carillo as:PONCHO
Actor and conservationist Leo Carrillo's enduring fame derives from his portrayal
Leo was born in Los Angeles in 1880, and began his career as a newspaper cartoonist and later moved into show business, first attracting attention as a dialect comedian in vaudeville. Carillo broke into movies in the late 1920s, just as sound was coming in. He most often played Latino characters, sometimes as a heavy, but more often he played the fool. His particular brand of buffoonery has be seen to be really appreciated. Carillo was a prolific performer, appearing in 15 major stage plays (several on Broadway) and more than 90 motion pictures in which he was featured in supporting or character roles. He worked with some of the very biggest stars in Hollywood and first played Poncho to Duncan Renaldo's Cisco in a B-Western series of five films, beginning 1948. With the sucess of these films Renaldo and Carillo were offered a pioneering television show based on their same characters. "The Cisco Kid" TV series ran for 156 action packed episodes and six enormously popular years. It was shot entirely in color, a first in tv production.
For all the stereotypical Latino roles he portrayed on screen such as Poncho, Leo Carrillo was actually an intelligent, literate man, from an old respected Los Angeles family that could trace their heritage back to the conquistadores. Even as his career was blossoming, Leo experienced parallel success as a politically well-connected supporter of recreational and cultural resources for the public. He served 18 years on the California Beaches and Parks Commission and the Leo Carrillo State Park near Malibu is named in his honor. In his later years he toured the world as the state's official Ambassador of Good Will. Small wonder Governor Edmund G. Brown called Leo "Mr. California." Carillo passed away from cancer in 1961.
Memorabilia, Collectables, Books, Movies, Posters, etc.
< < < trail BACK to Sidekicks . . .
 |
of Poncho, the loveable mischievous sidekick to Duncan Renaldo's Cisco Kid in the television series of the same name in the early 1950's.