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Ramón Gil Samaniego (February 6, 1899 – October 30, 1968), known professionally as Ramon Novarro, was a Mexican actor. He began his career in American
silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
s in 1917 and eventually became a leading man and one of the top box-office attractions of the 1920s and early '30s. Novarro was promoted by
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
as a " Latin lover" and became known as a sex symbol after the death of
Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor who starred in several well-known sile ...
. He is recognized as the first Latin American actor to succeed in Hollywood.


Early life

Novarro was born Ramón Gil Samaniego on February 6, 1899, in
Durango City Durango (, ) is the capital and largest city of the northern Mexican state of Durango and the seat of the municipality of Durango. It has a population of 616,068 as of the 2020 census with 688,697 living in the municipality. The city's offici ...
,
Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650 ...
, north-west Mexico, to Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego, and his wife, Leonor Pérez Gavilán. The family moved to Los Angeles to escape the
Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...
in 1913. Novarro's direct ancestors came from the Castilian town of
Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...
, whence two brothers emigrated to the
New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
in the seventeenth century. Allan Ellenberger, Novarro's biographer, writes: The family estate was called the "
Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden (; ; ) or Garden of God ( and ), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2–3 and Ezekiel 28 and 31.. The location of Eden is described in the Book of Ge ...
". Thirteen children were born there: Emilio; Guadalupe; Rosa; Ramón; Leonor; Mariano; Luz; Antonio; José; a stillborn child; Carmen; Ángel and Eduardo. At the time of the
Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...
, the family moved from Durango to Mexico City and then returned to Durango. Three of Ramón's sisters, Guadalupe, Rosa, and Leonor, became nuns. He was a second cousin of the Mexican actresses Dolores del Río and Andrea Palma.


Career


Silent films

Novarro began his film career in 1917, playing bit parts, supplementing his income by working as a singing waiter, a taxi dancer and as a dancer in revues choreographed by Ernest Belcher (father of Marge Champion). His friends, actor and director Rex Ingram and his wife, actress Alice Terry, began to promote him as a rival to
Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor who starred in several well-known sile ...
, and Ingram suggested he change his name to "Novarro". From 1923, he began to play more prominent roles. His role in '' Scaramouche'' (1923) brought him his first major success. Novarro achieved his greatest success in 1925, in '' Ben-Hur''. His revealing costumes caused a sensation. He was elevated into the Hollywood elite. As did many stars, Novarro engaged Sylvia of Hollywood as a physical therapist (although in her tell-all book, Sylvia erroneously claimed that Novarro slept in a coffin). With Valentino's death in 1926, Novarro became the screen's leading Latin actor, though ranked lower than his
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
contemporary John Gilbert as a leading man. Novarro was popular as a
swashbuckler A swashbuckler is a genre of European adventure literature that focuses on a heroic protagonist stock character who is skilled in swordsmanship, acrobatics, and guile, and possesses chivalrous ideals. A "swashbuckler" protagonist is heroic, ...
in action roles, and considered one of the great romantic lead actors of his day. He appeared with Norma Shearer in '' The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg'' (1927) and with
Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, 190? was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion-picture cont ...
in '' Across to Singapore'' (1928).


Talking films

He made his first talking film, starring as a singing French soldier, in '' Devil-May-Care'' (1929). He starred with Dorothy Janis in '' The Pagan'' (1929), with
Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's Silent film, silent and early Classical Hollywood cinema, golden eras. Regarded as one of the g ...
in '' Mata Hari'' (1931), with
Myrna Loy Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. As a performer, she was known for her ability to adapt to her screen partner's acting style. Born in Helena, Monta ...
in '' The Barbarian'' (1933) and opposite Lupe Vélez in '' Laughing Boy'' (1934). When his contract with MGM Studios expired in 1935 and the studio did not renew it, Novarro continued to act sporadically, appearing in films for
Republic Pictures Republic Pictures is currently an acquisition-only label owned by Paramount Pictures. Its history dates back to Republic Pictures Corporation, an American film studio that originally operated from 1935 to 1967, based in Los Angeles, California ...
, a Mexican religious drama, and a French comedy. In the 1940s, he had several small roles in American films, including '' We Were Strangers'' (1949), directed by John Huston and starring
Jennifer Jones Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nomin ...
and
John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle; March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...
. In 1958, he was considered for a role in the television series ''The Green Peacock'', with
Howard Duff Howard Green Duff (November 24, 1913July 8, 1990) was an American actor. He started in radio during World War II before appearing in many Hollywood features and television programs from 1947 to 1990. He also directed for television. His career ...
and Ida Lupino, after their
CBS Television CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
sitcom '' Mr. Adams and Eve'' (1957–58). The project, however, never materialized. A Broadway tryout was aborted in the 1960s. Novarro acted occasionally on television, appearing in NBC's '' The High Chaparral'' as late as 1968. At the peak of his success in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Novarro was earning more than US$100,000 per film. He invested some of his income in real estate, and his Hollywood Hills residence, the Samuel-Novarro House, is one of the more renowned designs (1927) by Lloyd Wright, the son of
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
. When his career ended, he was still able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.


Personal life

In 1925, Novarro purchased a home in "the exclusive West Adams district" of Los Angeles for $12,000 and spent an additional $100,000 on renovations. Novarro was troubled all his life by his conflicted feelings toward his
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
faith and his homosexuality. His life-long struggle with alcoholism is often traced to these problems. In the early 1920s, Novarro had a romantic relationship with composer Harry Partch, who was working as an usher at the
Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...
at the time, but Novarro broke off the affair as he achieved greater success as an actor. He was romantically involved with Hollywood journalist Herbert Howe, who was also his publicist in the late 1920s, and with a wealthy philanthropist and arts patron from San Francisco,
Noël Sullivan Reginald Noël Sullivan (December 25, 1890 – September 15, 1956) was a wealthy American concert singer, philanthropist, and patron of the arts, who is remembered for entertaining performers, artists and writers in his opulent residence on Hyde ...
. Along with Dolores del Río, Lupe Vélez and
James Cagney James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor and dancer. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and maj ...
, Novarro was accused of promoting
communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
in California after they attended a special screening of the film '' ¡Que viva México!'' by Soviet filmmaker
Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...
.


Murder

Novarro was murdered on October 30, 1968, by brothers Paul and Tom Ferguson, aged 22 and 17, who called him and offered their sexual services. In the past, he had hired prostitutes from an agency to come to his Laurel Canyon home for sex, and the Fergusons obtained Novarro's telephone number from a previous guest. According to the prosecution in the murder case, the two young men believed that a large sum of money was hidden in Novarro's house. The prosecution accused the brothers of torturing Novarro for several hours to force him to reveal where the (non-existent) money was hidden. They left the house with $20 they took from his bathrobe pocket. Novarro died as a result of
asphyxiation Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are ...
, having choked to death on his own blood after being beaten. The two perpetrators were caught and sentenced to long prison terms, but released on parole in the mid-1970s. Both were later re-arrested for unrelated crimes for which they served longer prison terms than for the murder of Novarro. In a 1998 interview, Paul Ferguson finally assumed the blame for Novarro's death. Tom Ferguson committed suicide on March 6, 2005. Paul Ferguson was beaten to death in prison by a fellow inmate in 2018, while serving out a 60-year sentence for rape in Missouri. Novarro is buried in Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles, California. Novarro's star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...
is at 6350 Hollywood Boulevard.


In popular culture

* In a 1961 episode of the ''
Car 54, Where Are You? ''Car 54, Where Are You?'' is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 1961 to April 1963. Filmed in black and white, the series starred Joe E. Ross as Gunther Toody and Fred Gwynne as Francis Muldoon, two mismatched New York City Po ...
'' TV show, Bonnie Kalsheim (guest-star
Alice Ghostley Alice Margaret Ghostley (August 14, 1923 – September 21, 2007) was an American actress and singer on stage, film and television. Ghostley was best known for her roles as bumbling witch Esmeralda (1969–72) on '' Bewitched'', as Cousin Alice ...
) reveals that she was "ruined" by Ramon Novarro. When pressed for details, she admits that her adoration of the star's screen presence had made every other man distastefully unsuitable to her as a potential love match. * Novarro's murder served as the basis for the short story by
Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German Americans, German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambien ...
titled "The Murder of Ramon Vasquez", as well as for the song "Tango," by
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Leiber and Stoller were an American songwriting and record production duo, consisting of lyricist Jerome Leiber (; April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933). As well as many R&B and pop hits, they wr ...
, recorded by
Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local r ...
on her ''
Mirrors A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
'' album. * Novarro's murder is one of the events in 1960s-California mentioned in
Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didio ...
's essay "The White Album", included in the 1979
book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...
of the same name. * Greek playwright Pavlos Matesis wrote a play in two parts titled ''The Ghost of Mr. Ramon Novarro'', which was first staged at the National Theatre of Greece in 1973. * Novarro's murder is briefly referenced in the sixth season ''
The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluct ...
'' episode " Cold Stones", following the violent murder of a closeted homosexual character. * In late 2005, the Wings Theatre in New York City staged the world premiere of '' Through a Naked Lens'' by George Barthel. The play combined fact and fiction to depict Novarro's rise to fame and his relationship with Hollywood journalist Herbert Howe. * Novarro's relationship with Howe is discussed in two biographies: Allan R. Ellenberger's ''Ramón Novarro'' and André Soares's ''Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramón Novarro.'' * In 2015, the murder of Ramon Novarro was covered in the television series '' Aquarius'' in the episode " Cease to Resist". * in the 2016
Hangar 13 Hangar 13 is an American video game developer based in Novato, California, in the area of the former Hamilton Air Force Base. Established with Haden Blackman in December 2014 as a division of 2K (a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive), ...
videogame '' Mafia III'', a news report on Ramon Novarro's murder can be heard on the car radio. The news anchor reports that he was "bludgeoned to death by unknown assailants".


Filmography


References


Bibliography

* * * *


External links

* * *
Ramón Novarro Photo Gallery

Photographs of Ramon Novarro
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Novarro, Ramon 1899 births 1968 deaths People murdered in 1968 20th-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American male actors 20th-century Mexican male actors 20th-century Mexican male writers 20th-century Mexican screenwriters American gay actors American male actors of Mexican descent American male film actors American male silent film actors American male television actors Burials at Calvary Cemetery (Los Angeles) Deaths by beating in the United States Deaths from choking Hispanic and Latino American male actors LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino American people LGBTQ Roman Catholics Male actors from Durango Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican film directors Mexican film producers Mexican gay actors Mexican LGBTQ film directors Mexican male film actors Mexican male silent film actors Mexican male stage actors Mexican male television actors Mexican people of Spanish descent Mexican Roman Catholics Murdered actors Murdered American people of Mexican descent People from Durango City People murdered in Los Angeles