Friday, February 17, 2006

Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez, R. I. P.

Thrilling Days of Yesteryear : "Nostalgia isn't what it used to be." -- Peter DeVries: "Character actor Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez has passed away at the age of 80, and the best way I can describe the man is that he was the William Huang of his time. He was able to parlay a 1953 appearance on Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life (where he was introduced as Ramiro G. Gonzalez) into a movie and television career, most notably in several John Wayne movies, The High and the Mighty (1954) and Rio Bravo (1959)."

We always listened to You Bet Your Life at our house, and I vividly remember the show on which Gonzalez-Gonzalez appeared. I'd never heard my parents laugh so hard. And of course I remember Gonzalez-Gonzalez as the hotel keeper in one of my favorite westerns, Rio Bravo. I hadn't heard anything of him in years, but I'm sad to learn he's gone.

No comments: