Ricardo Montalban dies at 88

Ricardo Montalban died Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 88. Mexican-born actor who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV’s “Fantasy Island,” died “from complications of advancing age,” his son-in-law, Gilbert Smith, later said.

Montalban had been a star in Mexican movies when MGM brought him to Hollywood in 1946.

During the late 1970s, he was the spokesperson in automobile advertisements for the Chrysler Cordoba (in which he famously extols the “Corinthian leather” used for its interior).

From 1977 to 1984 he starred as Mr. Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island. He also played Khan Noonien Singh in both a 1967 episode “Space Seed” of the first season of the original Star Trek series, and the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He won an Emmy Award in 1978, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993.

Up until his 80s, he continued to perform, often providing voices for animated films and commercials.