Ricardo Cortez (September 19, 1899 – April 28, 1977) was an American film actor who began his career during the silent film era.
Born Jacob Krantz in New York City (incorrectly, often Vienna is mentioned as his place of birth) into a Jewish family, he worked on Wall Street before his looks got him into the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name to Cortez to appeal to film-goers as a "Latin lover" to compete with such highly popular ...
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Ricardo Cortez (September 19, 1899 – April 28, 1977) was an American film actor who began his career during the silent film era.
Born Jacob Krantz in New York City (incorrectly, often Vienna is mentioned as his place of birth) into a Jewish family, he worked on Wall Street before his looks got him into the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name to Cortez to appeal to film-goers as a "Latin lover" to compete with such highly popular actors of the era as Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro and Antonio Moreno. When rumour began to circulate that Cortez was not actually Latin, the studios tried to pass him off as French, before they finally admitted his Viennese origin.
Cortez appeared in over 100 films. He played opposite Joan Crawford in Montana Moon in 1930, played Sam Spade in the original The Maltese Falcon in 1931, co-starred with Charles Farrell and Bette Davis in The Big Shakedown and Wonder Bar (with Al Jolson and Dolores del Río) in 1934. He also played Perry Mason in...
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