Ricardo Cortez

Ricardo Cortez (September 19, 1900 – April 28, 1977) was an American film actor who began his career during the silent film era. Born Jacob Krantz in New York City into a Jewish family, he worked on Wall Street in a broker's office and as a boxer before his looks got him into the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name to Cortez to appeal to film-goers as a "Latin lover" to compete with such highly popular actors of the era as Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro and Antonio Moreno. When rumour began to circulate that Cortez was not actually Spanish, the studios tried to pass him off as a different type of Latin, French, before they finally admitted his (supposedly) Viennese origin. Cortez appeared in over 100 films. He played opposite Joan Crawford in Montana Moon in 1930, played Sam Spade in the original The Maltese Falcon in 1931, co-starred with Charles Farrell and Bette Davis in The Big Shakedown and Wonder Bar (with Al Jolson and Dolores del Río) in 1934. He also played Perry Mason in the 1936 film The Case of the Black Cat. Although he began his career playing romantic leads with actresses like Greta Garbo, when sound cinema arrived, his powerful delivery and New York accent made him an ideal villain and conman, and he switched from sex symbol to character actor. Cortez was married to silent film actress Alma Rubens until her death of pneumonia in 1931. When he retired from the film business, Cortez went to work as a stockbroker for Solomon Brothers on New York's Wall Street. He died in New York City in 1977 and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx. He was the older brother of noted cinematographer Stanley Cortez (born Stanislaus Krantz).

Known For: Acting

Born: New York City, New York, USA, 1900-09-17

Died: 1977-04-28

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1923	The Gentleman from America		0
2	1923	Children of Jazz	Ted Carter	0
3	1923	Hollywood	Ricardo Cortez	70
4	1923	The Call of the Canyon	Larry Morrison	0
5	1924	The Next Corner	Don Arturo	0
6	1924	A Society Scandal	Harrison Peters	0
7	1924	The Bedroom Window	Robert Delano	0
8	1924	Feet of Clay	Tony Channing	0
9	1924	This Woman	Whitney Duane	0
10	1924	Argentine Love	Juan Martin	0
11	1925	The Swan	Dr. Walter, the Tutor	60
12	1925	The Spaniard	Don Pedro de Barrego	0
13	1925	In the Name of Love	Raoul Melnotte	0
14	1925	The Pony Express	Jack Weston	59
15	1925	Not So Long Ago	Billy Ballard	0
16	1926	Torrent	Don Rafael Brull	69
17	1926	Volcano	Stéphane Séquineau	0
18	1926	The Cat's Pajamas		0
19	1926	The Sorrows of Satan	Geoffrey Tempest	67
20	1926	The Eagle of the Sea	Captain Sazarac	0
21	1927	New York	Michael Angelo Cassidy	0
22	1927	Mockery	Dimitri	67
23	1927	The Private Life of Helen of Troy	Paris	43
24	1928	Woman of Destiny	Yoanes Etchegarry	0
25	1928	Excess Baggage	Val D'Errico	0
26	1929	The Younger Generation	Morris Goldfish	66
27	1929	New Orleans	Jim Morley	0
28	1929	Midstream	James Stanwood	0
29	1929	The Phantom in the House	Paul Wallis	46
30	1929	The Lost Zeppelin	Tom Armstrong	48
31	1930	Montana Moon	Jeff	45
32	1930	Her Man	Johnnie	53
33	1931	Ten Cents a Dance	Bradley Carlton	68
34	1931	Illicit	Price Baines	58
35	1931	Behind Office Doors	Ronnie Wales	48
36	1931	White Shoulders	Lawrence Marchmont	0
37	1931	The Maltese Falcon	Sam Spade	64
38	1931	Screen Snapshots (Series 10, No. 8)	Self	60
39	1931	Big Business Girl	Robert J. Clayton	60
40	1931	Transgression	Don Arturo de Borgus	40
41	1931	Bad Company	Goldie Gorio	46
42	1931	Reckless Living	Curly	30
43	1931	Men of Chance	Johnny Silk	58
44	1932	No One Man	Bill Hanaway	60
45	1932	Symphony of Six Million	Felix	54
46	1932	Is My Face Red?	William Poster	50
47	1932	Thirteen Women	Police Sergeant Barry Clive	63
48	1932	The Phantom of Crestwood	Gary Curtis	61
49	1932	Flesh	Nicky	56
50	1933	Broadway Bad	Craig Cutting	50
51	1933	Midnight Mary	Leo	68
52	1933	Torch Singer	Tony Cummings	52
53	1933	Big Executive	Victor Conway	0
54	1933	The House on 56th Street	Bill Blaine	52
55	1934	The Big Shakedown	Dutch Barnes	56
56	1934	Mandalay	Tony Evans	59
57	1934	Hollywood Newsreel	Himself	40
58	1934	Wonder Bar	Harry	61
59	1934	Hat, Coat and Glove	Robert Mitchell	55
60	1934	The Man with Two Faces	Ben Weston	66
61	1934	A Lost Lady	Ellinger	61
62	1934	The Firebird	Herman Brandt	55
63	1934	I Am a Thief	Pierre Londais	60
64	1935	The White Cockatoo	Jim Sundean	53
65	1935	Shadow of Doubt	Sim	62
66	1935	Manhattan Moon	Dan Moore	0
67	1935	Special Agent	Alexander Carston	62
68	1935	Frisco Kid	Paul Morra	68
69	1936	The Murder of Dr. Harrigan	George Lambert	56
70	1936	Man Hunt	Frank Kingman	0
71	1936	The Walking Dead	Nolan	62
72	1936	Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs		10
73	1936	Postal Inspector	Inspector Bill Davis	62
74	1936	The Case of the Black Cat	Perry Mason	66
75	1936	Talk of the Devil	Ray Allen	0
76	1936	Breakdowns of 1936	Self	0
77	1937	Her Husband Lies	J. Ward Thomas	60
78	1937	The Californian	Ramon Escobar	0
79	1937	West of Shanghai	Gordon Creed	54
80	1937	Breakdowns of 1937	Self	60
81	1938	City Girl	Charles Blake	60
82	1939	Mr. Moto's Last Warning	Fabian	55
83	1939	Charlie Chan in Reno	Dr. Ainsley	62
84	1940	Murder Over New York	George Kirby	61
85	1941	Romance of the Rio Grande	Ricardo de Vega	40
86	1941	A Shot in the Dark	Phillip Richards	50
87	1941	World Premiere	Mark Saunders	50
88	1941	I Killed That Man	Roger Phillips	60
89	1942	Who Is Hope Schuyler?	Anthony Pearce	40
90	1942	Rubber Racketeers	Gilin	43
91	1942	Tomorrow We Live	The Ghost, Alexander Caesar Martin	43
92	1944	Make Your Own Bed	Wilson / Fritz Alden	58
93	1946	The Inner Circle	Duke York	52
94	1946	The Locket	Drew Bonner	64
95	1947	Blackmail	Ziggy Cranston	40
96	1948	Mystery in Mexico	John Norcross	58
97	1950	Bunco Squad	Tony Weldon / Anthony Wells	59
98	1958	The Last Hurrah	Sam Weinberg	71
99	1960	Hedda Hopper's Hollywood	Self	60
100	1986	Greta Garbo: The Temptress and the Clown	Self as Don Rafael Brull (archive footage)	80
101	2003	Complicated Women	Self (archive footage)	67

Ricardo Cortez

Film

Television