NOVARRO, RAMÓN

(Ramón Samaniego y Pérez Gavilán)

(1899-1968)

born in Durango, Novarro moved to the United States during the Mexican Revolution and became an extremely popular sex symbol in 1920s Hollywood (ironically, since Novarro was apparently very gay), appearing in hits such asBen-Hur. Although he made a successful transition to sound (among his sound pictures wasMata Hari, with Greta Garbo), his career as a leading man ended in the mid-1930s. Novarro directed several Spanish-language movies in Hollywood, and later made some appearances as a character actor, through 1960. He acted in only one film in Mexico,La Virgen que forjó una patria(1942), directed by his cousin, Julio Bracho (he was also distantly related to Dolores del Río). Novarro was brutally beaten to death in his Los Angeles home in 1968.