Talk:Ricardo Montalbán

Formatting

• What the hell happened to the formatting? -- Fortyseven

Paralysis

• I found two slightly differing stories on what exactly caused his paralysis. If anyone knows for certain, please update the story. -- Fortyseven

I think it is the first one but I could be wrong.

Khan

Would it be reasonable to say that Ricardo Montalbán is best known for his role of Khan Noonian Singh, despite his appearances in other popular shows such as Fantasy Island? I don't know about anyone else, but my first thought whenever I hear the name Ricardo Montalbán is Khan.
JesseG 20:15, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree...pretty sad resume for a very good actor. Kidshare 19:26, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Whether it's "reasonable" depends totally on your age and perspective. He didn't just "appear" in Fantasy Island, he starred in it for several seasons and, to late 20th century audiences, it's his signature role. Of course, to older audiences, he might be best known as a romantic lead. In any event, I wouldn't pigeonhole a guy in one role just because it's the only thing I know. Pergish1 (talk) 16:48, 6 December 2009 (UTC)pergish1

Last Name question

This isn't a pressing issue or anything, but does his last name Montalbán have any relation to the famous ancient city of Monte Alban in Oaxaca? I only recently noticed the similarity. -- Bobak 17:30, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

You are quite right. This is quite common in Spanish names. For example, Hidalgo is a contraction of Hijo de Algo or son of somebody (son of someone of importance). Likewise, Montalbán is a name based on a contraction of Monte Alban. Sarum blue 04:19, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Cordoba

Though it is usually misquoted as "rich Corinthian leather", the correct line is "SOFT Corinthian leather." Video available at YouTube verify this. He also did the Plymouth Volare Commerical. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.28.158.53 (talk) 02:19, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Recent Happenings

I don't think that the relative time references in this paragraph are encyclopedic. They should be absolute. Lukas 03:11, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Five Stages of the Actor

Does anyone have any verifiable source for this? I seem to recall Lorne Greene quoting these five stages in an interview. Enigmatick 07:34, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I clearly remember watching an interview where Montalbán resites these five rules. Of course, I can't say if they were verbatim what is written here. 193.91.181.142 (talk) 05:11, 2 August 2008 (UTC) (Nick)

Maybe it's such a nice little joke, that several actors have used it upon reaching a certain age. It's also attributed to Mary Astor (see Later life section of her article). Rossrs (talk) 08:01, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Taco Bell

He was mentioned the the Super Bowl Commercial

Screencap

I have deleted the screencap from the ibox (again). Screencaps are not free use in bios, only in character articles, see WP:FU. – ukexpat (talk) 00:29, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

• I did not see the deleted image, but presuming it was an image of Montalban as Mr. Roarke, item #12 under "unacceptable uses" actually provides a notwithstanding clause. First, the individual pictured is no longer alive, second it is an image that depicts the individual in their most notable role. It is ridiculous and in my opinion utterly disrepsectful that this article has no image of the person. It's times like this that Wikipedia looks silly and deserves the criticism it gets for being too anal for its own good. 23skidoo (talk) 00:55, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Potential breach of copyright is a serious issue, trumping any alleged "direspect". – ukexpat (talk) 01:17, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Fair use is not an infringement. 23skidoo is pointing out that Wikipedia's policies, which you cited as the basis for the photo's removal, consider this a fair use. The prohibition you seem to be relying on is against "Pictures of people still alive..." Montalban is no longer still alive. If you are referring to a different part of WP:FU, perhaps you can be more specific. TJRC (talk) 02:42, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Heaven Help Us

Surprisingly there's no article on the 1994-95 fantasy TV series in which Montalban starred (he played a Mr. Roarke character to a pair of "angels" one of whom I recall was played by a pre-OC Melinda Clarke). Not only is there no Wikipedia article, but IMDB has very little, although the series did exist and was shown quite a lot in the mid-90s. It should be added -- it was no classic but it was a series in which Montalban had a major role. I'm hesitant to add a redlink at the present time, however. 23skidoo (talk) 00:51, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Date of Death

There seems to be an edit war, swapping the date of death between the 13th and 14th.

L.A. Times reports the 14th: "Montalban died Wednesday morning..." [1]. Ditto Hollywood Reporter, [2] and Entertainment Weekly [3]. Are there sources to the contrary? TJRC (talk) 00:58, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Characteristics?

Could somebody add a line about Montalban's personal charisma through all his roles? Pauline Kael noted this in her review of "The Wrath of Khan": she suggested that this might be one reason that he _didn't_ get the parts he deserved. 128.147.28.1 (talk) 16:42, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Title of Knighthood

I know that he was only Knighted by the Pope, not the Queen on England or something, but I still feel that in respect for such a wonderful actor, his title on the article should be changed to "Sir Ricardo Montalbán", but I'm just saying.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Haon 2.0 (talk • contribs) 5:45:14 24 November 2011 (UTC)

I agree Montalbán is a wonderful actor. However, Papal Orders of Chivalry are "honorary" titles, meaning titles bestowed on non-citizens, without most of the legal obligations of knighthood or other nobility. Relevant policy citations:

Wikipedia:Naming conventions (royalty and nobility)

Honorary knights – roughly, those not from the Commonwealth – are not called "Sir"

Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biographies

Honorary knights and dames are not entitled to Sir or Dame, only the post-nominal letters.

What I gather from this is knighthood bestowed from another country does not get a Sir. I think this style limitation helps prevent confusion, since in this case it would imply there is a Mexican knighthood (or a similar order of nobility), which I don't think there is. There is some controversy about the use of honorifics, but the safe bet would be to discuss the knighthood in the article body (as this article does), and avoid it in naming.

Other interesting things I just learned:

• per Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biographies#Honorific_titles, honorifics with first names ("Sir Elton", "Dame Judi") are considered too casual for an encyclopedia
• Sir Bob is not a "Sir" at all, tho he is dubbed so in the press, and cannot use the title.

/ edg ☺ ☭ 14:38, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Attribution

Mgrē@sŏn 19:07, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Citizenship

I reverted a change where User:Mcjones41 removed cited text from article which states that Montalban never became a citizen of the US. In his Edit Summary, the user includes a URL [[4]] of a video interview and Mcjones41 states: "I just watched an interview with Montalban in which he states explicitly that he has US citizenship." I watched 28 minutes and did not hear him talk about becoming an American citizen. I looked for other sources of citizenship info, and found four that state he did not become an American citizen. Mgrē@sŏn 19:37, 1 December 2011 (UTC)