Ricardo Cortez

Ricardo Cortez (born Jacob Krantz; September 19, 1900 – April 28, 1977) was an American actor.

Life and career

Born to a Jewish family in New York City (Vienna has been incorrectly cited as his birthplace), Krantz was an amateur boxer and worked on Wall Street prior to entering the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name from Krantz to Cortez in order to capitalize on the popularity of the era's "Latin lovers" (namely Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro and Antonio Moreno). When rumor began to circulate that Cortez was not actually Spanish, the studios attempted to pass him off as French before finally "admitting" to his supposedly Viennese origin.

Cortez appeared in over 100 films. Having begun his career playing romantic leads, when sound cinema arrived, his strong delivery and New York accent made him an ideal heavy. Though he would go on to occasionally portray leading men, Cortez's main focus became character acting. He played opposite Joan Crawford in Montana Moon (1930), played Sam Spade in the original, pre-code version of The Maltese Falcon (1931), co-starred with Charles Farrell and Bette Davis in The Big Shakedown, and with Al Jolson and Dolores del Río in Wonder Bar (1934). In 1936, Cortez replaced Warren William as Perry Mason in The Case of the Black Cat.