Leo Carrillo Movies
Leo Carrillo was descended from a long-established, aristocratic California family. His great-grandfather was the first provisional governor of California, while his father was the first mayor of Santa Monica. His parents wanted him to be a priest, but Carrillo decided to go for an engineering degree while attending Loyola University. A talented caricaturist, Carrillo secured a job as a political cartoonist at the San Francisco Examiner. At the encouragement of his fellow employees, Carrillo decided to parlay his gift for mimicry and dialects into a vaudeville career. He went on to provide comedy relief for several stage plays and musical productions, starring in one tailor-made vehicle, Lombardi Ltd. In films from 1929, Carrillo was frequently cast as excitable, malaprop-ridden Spaniards and Italians; in only a few instances, notably John Ford's The Fugitive (1947), did Carrillo perform in his normal California cadence, sans dialect. From 1950 through 1955, Carrillo co-starred with Duncan Renaldo in the popular TV western series The Cisco Kid, playing Cisco's sidekick Pancho. Though well into his seventies, Carrillo claimed to be in his mid-fifties so that the Cisco Kid company would qualify for insurance coverage. As active in California politics and civic affairs as his forebears, Leo Carrillo was in charge of the annual Fiesta de Santa Barbara, and at one juncture was appointed to the State Park Commission; there still exists a California beach named in Carrillo's honor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1931
In this crime drama, dedicated to the police forces of America, a gangster searches for his estranged son, also a gangster. Meanwhile a police captain searches for the gangsters who murdered his son. The gangster's crooked son, wanting to stay out of jail for killing the cop's son, offers to help the police catch his father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Carrillo, Noah Beery, Sr., (more)
- 1931
William Shakespeare's classic tragedy Romeo & Juliet is loosely adapted and modernized in director Rowland V. Lee's Guilty Generation. Set in 1930's New York, rival gangster families the Palmero's and the Ricca's play Lee's version of the infamous Montagues and Capulets. The two mobs had once co-existed peacefully, but split after a terrible argument, causing a long-standing and deadly rivalry. Maria Palmero (Constance Cummings), the daughter of gangster Mike Palmero (Leo Carillo), meets and falls in love with a young architect played by (Robert Young). Though Young's character goes by the name of John Smith, his true identity is none other than Marco Ricca--the son of Mike's (Carillo) rival. Due to the war waged by their families, Maria and Marco try to keep their affair and ultimate marriage to one another secret. Unfortunately, Maria's father realizes the two have married and vows to kill Marco, who had earlier killed Maria's brother. Tragically, the Palmero family patriarch is only stopped with a bullet from his own mother's (Emma Dunn) gun.
~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Carrillo, Constance Cummings, (more)
- 1931
Texas Ranger Leo Carrillo falls for dance hall girl Dorothy Burgess who is wanted for murder. Burgess won't let her lover bring her to justice and kills herself by diving into a cattle stampede. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1929
In this romance, an organ grinder falls in love with a corrupt mayor's daughter. The mayor, worried that the organ grinder will reveal his knowledge of the politician's illegal activities, does all he can to persuade the organ grinder that the girl is not interested in him, but the intrepid street performer is not dissuaded. In the end, the girl winds up tying herself to his donkey and begging him to take her away. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Carrillo, Gareth Hughes, (more)
