Born:
August 12, 1911
Died:
April 20, 1993
Birthplace: Mexico City, Mexico
Trivia:
Immensely popular through-out the Spanish-speaking world and hailed as both Mexico's greatest clown and the Spanish Charlie Chaplin. Born Mario Moreno Reyes, he got his start as a tent-show song-and-dance man. Cantinflas became an acrobat and bull-ring clown (the clown who distracts the bull when the bullfighter gets in trouble). After appearing in unambitious Mexican comedies beginning in 1936, his first Hollywood film was Mike Todd's Around the World in 80 Days (1956), which earned him an international reputation for his performance as Passepartout. As his fame increased, Hollywood created a vehicle for him, the critical and commercial failure Pepe (1960), after which he returned to making Mexican films.