Ricardo Cortez
Personal Info
Known For Actor
Gender Male
Birthday 1900-09-17
Deathday 1977-04-28 (76 years old)
Place of Birth New York City, New York, USA
Also Known As Jacob Krantz, Jack Crane
Ricardo Cortez
Biography
Ricardo Cortez (September 19, 1900 – April 28, 1977) was an American film actor who began his career during the silent film era. Born Jacob Krantz in New York City into a Jewish family, he worked on Wall Street in a broker's office and as a boxer 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 Spanish, the studios tried to pass him off as a different type of Latin, French, before they finally admitted his (supposedly) 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 the 1936 film The Case of the Black Cat. Although he began his career playing romantic leads with actresses like Greta Garbo, when sound cinema arrived, his powerful delivery and New York accent made him an ideal villain and conman, and he switched from sex symbol to character actor. Cortez was married to silent film actress Alma Rubens until her death of pneumonia in 1931. When he retired from the film business, Cortez went to work as a stockbroker for Solomon Brothers on New York's Wall Street. He died in New York City in 1977 and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx. He was the older brother of noted cinematographer Stanley Cortez (born Stanislaus Krantz).
Known For
Actor
as Self (archive footage)
as Self as Don Rafael Brull (archive footage)
as Self
as Sam Weinberg
as Self
as Tony Weldon / Anthony Wells
as John Norcross
as Ziggy Cranston
as Drew Bonner
as Duke York
as Wilson / Fritz Alden
as The Ghost, Alexander Caesar Martin
as Gilin
as Anthony Pearce
as Roger Phillips
as Mark Saunders
as Phillip Richards
as Ricardo de Vega
as George Kirby
as Dr. Ainsley
as Fabian
as Charles Blake
as Self
as Gordon Creed
as Ramon Escobar
as J. Ward Thomas
as Self
as Ray Allen
as Perry Mason
as Inspector Bill Davis
as Nolan
as Frank Kingman
as George Lambert
as Paul Morra
as Alexander Carston
as Dan Moore
as Sim
as Jim Sundean
as Pierre Londais
as Herman Brandt
as Ellinger
as Ben Weston
as Robert Mitchell
as Harry
as Himself
as Tony Evans
as Dutch Barnes
as Bill Blaine
as Victor Conway
as Tony Cummings
as Leo
as Craig Cutting
as Nicky
as Gary Curtis
as Police Sergeant Barry Clive
as William Poster
as Felix
as Bill Hanaway
as Johnny Silk
as Curly
as Goldie Gorio
as Don Arturo de Borgus
as Robert J. Clayton
as Sam Spade
as Lawrence Marchmont
as Ronnie Wales
as Price Baines
as Bradley Carlton
as Johnnie
as Jeff
as Tom Armstrong
as Paul Wallis
as James Stanwood
as Jim Morley
as Morris Goldfish
as Val D'Errico
as Yoanes Etchegarry
as Paris
as Dimitri
as Michael Angelo Cassidy
as Captain Sazarac
as Geoffrey Tempest
as Stéphane Séquineau
as Don Rafael Brull
as Billy Ballard
as Jack Weston
as Raoul Melnotte
as Don Pedro de Barrego
as Dr. Walter, the Tutor
as Juan Martin
as Whitney Duane
as Tony Channing
as Robert Delano
as Harrison Peters
as Don Arturo
as Larry Morrison
as Ricardo Cortez
as Ted Carter
Director
as Director
as Director
as Director
as Director
as Director
as Director
as Director