Antonio Moreno

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Actor Born Antonio Garido Moreno Montagudo on Sept. 26, 1887 in Madrid, Spain

Antonio Moreno was one of early Hollywood’s suavest Latin lovers.

Although Moreno reached the height of his career in the 1920s when he was ranked second only to Rudolph Valentino as the great lover of the silent screen, he continued making films until 1959.
Moreno’s adeptness at performing dated to his childhood, when, at age 9, he was apprenticed to a baker in his birthplace of Madrid.

One day two American tourists entered the baker’s shop and were impressed with the boy. When they asked his name, he replied: “Antonio Garido Moreno Montagudo, at the service of you and God.”
His mother permitted the two men to take Moreno to New York and place him in a school. He began his acting career several years later and eventually gave up the stage for Hollywood.

His films of this era included “Beverly of Graustark” (1926), “The Temptress” (1926), "Madame Pompadour” (1927) and “The Bohemian Girl” (1936).

In 1923, he married Daisy Canfield Danziger, a millionaire divorcee. She was killed in an auto accident 10 years later and Moreno did not remarry.

Although Moreno made the transition to talking movies, he could not do it as a leading man and became a character actor in films such as “Rose of the Rio Grande” (1938), “Thunder Bay” (1953) and “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954).

— Roy Haynes in the Los Angeles Times Feb. 16, 1967