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Ricardo Montalbán, 1920-2009
January 19, 2009

My first encounter with Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino was not in Star Trek, nor was it in Fantasy Island and, no, it wasn’t even on those Cordoba commercials (“soft, Corinthian leather”). No, it was in an Esther Williams musical, of all things: 1947’s On an Island With You. Always a favorite of my mother’s, I watched it with her several times as I was growing up and I must admit that Ricardo Montalbán—playing a character cleverly named Ricardo Montez—cut quite a memorable swath across the screen. And he had a particular dance number with co-star Cyd Charisse that was downright torrid in this 8-year-old’s eyes. (Thankfully, the Esther Williams water ballet songs cooled me down a bit.)

 

Montalbán died on Wednesday, January 14, at the age of 88.

 

Esther Williams flicks notwithstanding, for many of my generation, Montalbán will always be the oh-so-suave Mr. Roarke, chief administrator of TV’s Fantasy Island (which ran a staggering eight years back in the late Seventies) and, more importantly, Khan Noonian Singh, the genetically engineered superman from Earth’s 20^th

Century who created so much trouble for the crew of Star Trek’s U.S.S. Enterprise back in one classic TV installment and, later, in the outstanding film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).

 

I could wax hyperbolic for pages about Montalbán’s portrayal of Khan (as many, many have before me) or on my favorite bits of Khan dialog (for my part, I love it when he hisses to Kirk in the second half of Star Trek II: “I've done far worse than kill you, Admiral. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her; marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet. Buried alive….buried alive...!). I’d rather just submit a picture taken nearly a decade ago in L.A. for a Paramount event celebrating the release of Star Trek II on DVD. And we both happen to look great here!!

Posted by Laurence Lerman on January 19, 2009 | Comments (3)