Ramon Novarro

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.

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, 1969, 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. Occurring in the aftermath of the infamous Sharon Tate/Jay Sebring murders, this case further terrified the already shaken residents of Los Angeles.