- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJose Ramón Gil Samaniego
- Nicknames
- The Latin Lover
- Ramon Samaniegos
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Ramon Novarro was born José Ramón Gil Samaniego on February 6, 1899 in Durango, Mexico, to Leonor (Gavilan) and Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego Siqueiros, a prosperous dentist. Ramon and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1913, as refugees from the Mexican Revolution. After stints as a ballet dancer, piano teacher and singing waiter, he became a film extra in 1917. For five years he remained an extra until director Rex Ingram cast him as Rupert in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922). He was cast with Lewis Stone and Ingram's wife, Alice Terry (Ingram was also the person who suggested that he change his name to Novarro). He worked with Ingram in his next four films and was again teamed with Terry in the successful Scaramouche (1923). Novarro's rising popularity among female moviegoers resulted in his being billed as the "New Valentino". In 1925 he appeared in his most famous role, as the title character in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), and later co-starred with Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927). His first talking picture was Call of the Flesh (1930), where he sang and danced the tango. He continued to appear in musicals, but his popularity was slipping. He starred with Greta Garbo in the successful Mata Hari (1931), but his career began to fade fast. In 1935 he left MGM and appeared on Broadway in a show that quickly flopped. His later career, when he was able to find work in films, consisted mostly of cameos. On October 30th, 1968, Ramon Novarro was savagely beaten in his North Hollywood home by two young hustlers. They had heard - in error - that he had thousands of dollars locked away somewhere in his home. They never found any money, and Ramon was discovered dead the next day by his servant.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
- RelativesDolores Del Río(Cousin)
- Was close friends with Gabriel Navarro, the grandfather of rocker Dave Navarro. He chose to borrow Gabriel's surname for his stage name, but a secretary made a typing error, rendering him forever Ramon Novarro.
- A book about his death, "Bloody Wednesday", was rushed into print. For some reason, very few copies are available today, making the book a collector's item.
- Cousin of Dolores Del Río and Andrea Palma.
- In 1970 a pair of male hustler brothers were convicted of Novarro's brutal murder. They had accompanied Novarro to his home the night before Halloween, 1968, mistakenly believing he had thousands of dollars in cash hidden somewhere in the house. When he insisted there was no money, the brothers tied him up, then beat him to death and reportedly mutilated his corpse.
- Interred at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, CA.
- I was always the hero--with no vices--reciting practically the same lines to the leading lady. The current crop of movie heroes are less handicapped than the old ones. They are more human. The leading men of silent films were Adonises and Apollos. Today, the hero can even take a poke at the leading lady. In my time, a hero who hit the girl just once would have been out.
- Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1927) - $10,000 /week
- Trifling Women (1922) - $150 .00
- The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) - $125 /week
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