Ricardo Montalban: “KAHHHHHHN!” is Dead

Posted by ScuzzBuster

January 14, 2009

Ricardo Montalban is one of the most unique and memorable actors of the past 50 years or so. His roles in film and television cross the entire spectrum of entertainment. For me, he has the honor of not only appearing in more than one of my top 20 or so favorite movies of all time, but also in one of my bottom five most hated films ever.

The diversity of his career was so wide that if you asked 10 random people on the street what they most associate him with you could very well come up with 10 different responses. One of the silliest responses would be “corinthian leather.” Those two words propelled Montalban into the public consciousness in the early 1970s because of his eloquent pronunciation of the phrase in a series of Chrysler commercials.

For those of you around my age (information withheld for national security reasons), there is was one overwhelming launch of Ricardo into our lives:

“Welcome to Fantasy Island, I am your host, Mr. Roark.”

It was one of the cheesiest one-hour dramas in the history of television, and one half of the late 1970s/early 1980s Friday night power punch of Love Boat and Fantasy Island. When I was a young boy–well before dating and drinking age–we LIVED for Friday nights, baby.

As I matured, my childhood foolishness grew into budding, excessive geekism and it was Montalban’s portrayal of Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that unified Star Trek geeks around the globe in the definitive understanding that Ricardo Montalban was a God among men.

It was mainly his ability to deliver the most ridiculous lines with the utmost seriousness to the point where you didn’t even realize that they were ludicrously silly:

I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares Maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!

In his later years, Montalban became a bit bitter and ornery. He made no bones about the fact that many of the roles he took he did so simply for money and had utter contempt for the material. Even films that are held in high regard he dismissed as mostly crap. One of those films, 1988’sThe Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, I still regard as one of the greatest comedies of all time.

Montalban has been in so many historic pieces of entertainment it’s hard to quantify the loss. From the Star Trek film and series to The Planet of the Apes films he’s always had a special place in the hearts of geeks. Unfortunately, I also had the misfortune of having to see him in one of the absolute worst pieces of film trash ever, Spy Kids 3–and I don’t take that assessment lightly, I really liked the first two Spy Kids films. But I digress.