Leo Carrillo Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo (; August 6, 1880 – September 10, 1961), known professionally as Leo Carrillo, was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist. He was best known for playing Pancho in the television ...

() (1881–1961) was an American cartoonist, a comedian in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

, and an actor on stage, film and television. He was best known in the United States as the Cisco Kid's sidekick Pancho on 1950s children's television, a role which capped a long show business career that began decades earlier. Growing up in culturally diverse Los Angeles, Carrillo was conversant in five languages with a keen ear for dialects. When he went to work for the '' San Francisco Examiner'' as a cartoonist, he began performing humorous monologues on the San Francisco stage, easily transforming himself into a variety of personas. Soon he began working in vaudeville with

Major Bowes Edward Bowes (June 14, 1874 – June 13, 1946), professionally known as Major Edward Bowes, was an American radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s whose ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour'' was the best-known amateur talent show on radio during its 18 ...

, and toured the Orpheum Circuit with Walter C. Kelly. Theatrical producer

Oliver Morosco Oliver Morosco (June 20, 1875 – August 25, 1945) was an American theatrical producer, director, writer, film producer, and theater owner. He owned the Morosco Photoplay Company. He brought many of his theater actors to the screen. Frank A. Garb ...

offered him a role in the original Broadway play ''Upstairs and Down'' in 1916, and within a year, he landed the title role in ''Lombardi, Ltd''. For the next decade he performed on the vaudeville circuit in between acting in Broadway productions. A 1927 touring revival production of ''Lombardi, Ltd.'', again featured Carrillo in the lead, and began at George M. Cohan's Theatre before going on the road. Carrillo's first screen appearances were in 1927

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...

shorts.Bradley (2005) p. 366 In the early decades of his film career, he was often the starring lead. And while he played many different ethnic roles, or characters with no discernible ethnicity, he was often cast as Italian or Hispanic. He played everything from the hero to the villain, in straight dramatic parts as well as appearing in light comedy and musical films. Over the course of his movie career, Carrillo appeared in over 80 feature-length films, ending in 1950 with '' Pancho Villa Returns''. He was 68 years old when he first teamed with

Duncan Renaldo Renault Renaldo Duncan (April 23, 1904 – September 3, 1980), better known as Duncan Renaldo, was a Romanian-born American actor best remembered for his portrayal of The Cisco Kid in films and on the 1950–1956 American TV series ''The Cisco Ki ...

to co-star in five Cisco Kid movies in 1949–1950. The ensuing popular ''

The Cisco Kid The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in '' Everybody's Magaz ...

'' television series ran for 156 episodes 1950–1956. For his contributions to the entertainment industry, Carrillo received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960 . The star for his contributions to motion pictures is located at 1635 Vine Street, and the star for his television work is a block away at 1517 Vine Street.

Stage

Television

Films

Film shorts

Feature and serial films

See also

Notes

Footnotes

Citations

References

External links