Slashdot Mirror
Ricardo Montalban Dead At 88
DesScorp writes "Ricardo Montalban, immortalized as Khan in the Star Trek franchise, is dead at age 88, passing at his Los Angeles home. Montalban had a long and successful career on television and film. The voice of Rich Corinthian Leather is silenced, but we still have the memories."
Mr. Montalban was probably the most significant Latino in Star Trek. It's very interesting; in the original Star Trek, when we had all of this racial integration: Uhura being a significant black person, Sulu being a significant Asian, Chekov being a significant Russian, etc. However, the only real latino we had in Star Trek was Mr. Montalban, who was the antagonist in both Space Seed and its sequel, The Wrath of Kahn.
I remember, when The Wrath of Kahn came out, watching an interview with Mr. Montalban. He talked about how his success as an actor (he also had the very famous role as Mr. Roarke in Fantasy Island) made his role one of the first really successful Latino roles in Hollywood (There was also, before him, Desi Arnaz in I Love Lucy, whose success resulted in Desilu Productions who later on produced Star Trek). Of course, with such beautiful Latinas as Jessica Alba, Christina Aguilera, and Jennifer Lopez on the silver screen today, nobody thinks twice about a Latino having a title role, but it wasn't always that way.
(from wiki)
Kirk and Khan never confront each other face-to-face during the film; all of their interactions are over a viewscreen or through communicators, and the their scenes were filmed four months apart.
Montalban enjoyed making the film, and counted the role as a career highlight. His major complaint was that he was never face-to-face with Shatner for a scene. "I had to do my lines with the script girl, who, as you might imagine, sounded nothing like Bill [Shatner]," he explained.