Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

R.I.P., Señor Armando

by Rob - January 15th, 2009.
Filed under: Deaths.


All the press coverage about the passing today of the very talented Ricardo Montalbán is mentioning his work on Fantasy Island and Star Trek. And, of course, I loved his portrayal of Khan.

But you know what his best work was? The role of Señor Armando in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film in the series. (He was also in the third, playing a younger version of the same man, but that was a flamboyant performance.)

In Conquest, the darkest film in the series, he was really called upon to act, and he rose beautifully to the challenge, playing the world-weary father figure to Cornelius the chimpanzee as a man of integrity and honor; he brilliantly underplays the role, one of only two sympathetic humans in the entire film.

Police officer: “Circuses are past history.”
Armando: “Not while I live and breathe.”

Rest in peace, Señor Montalbán.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

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