Ramon Novarro

Ramon Novarro was born Ramon Gil Samaniego in Durango, Mexico, in 1899, into a well-off family whose fortunes were shattered by the Mexican Revolution. As a young man he fled the violence and crossed into the United States, where he took whatever work he could find, singing, waiting tables, and dancing, while chasing bit parts and extra jobs in the film colony.

Director Rex Ingram spotted his striking looks and easy athleticism and gave him his breakthrough as the sneering villain in Scaramouche (1923), then a dashing role in The Prisoner of Zenda. But it was Ben-Hur (1925), one of the most expensive and spectacular films of the silent era, that made him a genuine star. As the wronged Judah Ben-Hur driving his chariot through the roaring arena, Novarro anchored a colossus, and MGM promoted him hard as the new great lover, a natural successor to the recently deceased Valentino.

For several years he was among the studio's top box-office draws, admired for his athletic grace and sensitive beauty. He was also, quietly, a devout Catholic and a gay man, and the tension between his faith, his desires, and the demands of a manufactured heterosexual image weighed on him throughout his life. He made the transition to sound and even got to sing on screen, but his stardom cooled through the 1930s, and he moved gradually into character parts and a comfortable semi-retirement, investing wisely in real estate.

His importance is easy to underrate today: he was one of the first Latino actors to become a top-tier Hollywood leading man, opening a door that had barely existed. His death was horrific. In October 1968, at his Hollywood Hills home, he was beaten and tortured to death by two young brothers who believed a fortune was hidden there. He was sixty-nine. The brutality of his murder long overshadowed a career that deserves to be remembered on its own considerable terms.