Leo Carrillo





Leo Carrillo Actor

Height 5' 10"

Spouse: Edith Haeselbarth (1940 - 1953) Child: Antoinette

Leo Carrillo's enduring fame derives from his characterization of Pancho on
the "Cisco Kid" TV show, but there was much more to his show-business
career. A former newspaper cartoonist, Carrillo first attracted attention as
a dialect comedian in vaudeville. He broke into movies in the late 1920s,
just as sound was coming in, and most often played a malapropistic Latin
character. He was sometimes a heavy, as in Girl of the Rio (1932), but more
often played the fool. His particular brand of buffoonery must be seen to be
appreciated in Moonlight and Pretzels (1933), Viva Villa! (1934), Love Me
Forever, In Caliente (both 1935), History Is Made at Night (1937), Manhattan
MerryGo-Round, Girl of the Golden West, Too Hot to Handle (all 1938),
Lillian Russell (1940, as Tony Pastor), American Empire (1942), Ghost
Catchers (1944), and The Fugitive (1947), among others. He first played
Pancho to Duncan Renaldo's Cisco in a 1950 series of B Westerns, before
achieving latter-day celebrity in the longrunning television show. Proud of
his Californian heritage, he wrote a book, The California I Love in 1961.

Trivia Leo Carrillo State Park and Leo Carrillo beach, both in California,
were named after the actor, who also served on the State Park and Recreation
Commission. He was related by blood and marriage to a long line of
distinguished original Californians.

For all the stereotypical Latinos he portrayed on screen, Leo Carrillo was
actually an intelligent, literate man, the scion of an old, respected Los
Angeles family who could trace his heritage back to the conquistadores.