Ricardo Cortez
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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
Credits
Manhattan Moon (1935)
as Dan Moore
Her Man (1930)
as Johnnie
Hollywood Newsreel (1934)
as Himself
Wonder Bar (1934)
as Harry
New York (1927)
as Michael Angelo Cassidy
White Shoulders (1931)
as Lawrence Marchmont
A Lost Lady (1934)
as Ellinger
Argentine Love (1924)
as Juan Martin
Special Agent (1935)
as Alexander Carston
Woman of Destiny (1928)
as Yoanes Etchegarry
Excess Baggage (1928)
as Val D'Errico
The Last Hurrah (1958)
as Sam Weinberg
Midstream (1929)
as James Stanwood
Ten Cents a Dance (1931)
as Bradley Carlton
The Walking Dead (1936)
as Nolan
The Spaniard (1925)
as Don Pedro de Barrego
The Inner Circle (1946)
as Duke York
Thirteen Women (1932)
as Police Sergeant Barry Clive
The Locket (1946)
as Drew Bonner
Torrent (1926)
as Don Rafael Brull
Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs (1936)
Actor
A Society Scandal (1924)
as Harrison Peters
Talk of the Devil (1936)
as Ray Allen
Midnight Mary (1933)
as Leo
Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939)
as Fabian
Torch Singer (1933)
as Tony Cummings
City Girl (1938)
as Charles Blake
Big Business Girl (1931)
as Robert J. Clayton
The Maltese Falcon (1931)
as Sam Spade
The Big Shakedown (1934)
as Dutch Barnes
Prowlers of the Sea (1928)
as Carlos De Neve
Her Husband Lies (1937)
as J. Ward Thomas
Flesh (1932)
as Nicky
The House on 56th Street (1933)
as Bill Blaine
Who Is Hope Schuyler? (1942)
as Anthony Pearce
Ladies of the Night Club (1928)
as George Merrill
Make Your Own Bed (1944)
as Wilson / Fritz Alden
Rubber Racketeers (1942)
as Gilin
Complicated Women (2003)
as Self (archive footage)
I Am a Thief (1934)
as Pierre Londais
The Case of the Black Cat (1936)
as Perry Mason
The Phantom of Crestwood (1932)
as Gary Curtis
Frisco Kid (1935)
as Paul Morra
The Eagle of the Sea (1926)
as Captain Sazarac
Breakdowns of 1937 (1937)
as Self
Charlie Chan in Reno (1939)
as Dr. Ainsley
The Man with Two Faces (1934)
as Ben Weston
The Murder of Dr. Harrigan (1936)
as George Lambert
Men of Chance (1931)
as Johnny Silk
Postal Inspector (1936)
as Inspector Bill Davis
By Whose Hand? (1927)
as Agent X-9
The Bedroom Window (1924)
as Robert Delano
The Younger Generation (1929)
as Morris Goldfish
Murder Over New York (1940)
as George Kirby
Sixty Cents an Hour (1923)
as William Davis
Bad Company (1931)
as Goldie Gorio
Mockery (1927)
as Dimitri
The Sorrows of Satan (1926)
as Geoffrey Tempest
Symphony of Six Million (1932)
as Felix
Breakdowns of 1936 (1936)
as Self
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood (1960)
as Self
Mystery in Mexico (1948)
as John Norcross
Illicit (1931)
as Price Baines
Montana Moon (1930)
as Jeff
This Woman (1924)
as Whitney Duane
Stars of the Silver Screen - Greta Garbo (2014)
as Self (archive footage)
Transgression (1931)
as Don Arturo de Borgus
Blackmail (1947)
as Ziggy Cranston
Bunco Squad (1950)
as Tony Weldon / Anthony Wells
Hat, Coat and Glove (1934)
as Robert Mitchell
In the Name of Love (1925)
as Raoul Melnotte
West of Shanghai (1937)
as Gordon Creed
The Swan (1925)
as Dr. Walter, the Tutor
Shadow of Doubt (1935)
as Sim
No One Man (1932)
as Bill Hanaway
Man Hunt (1936)
as Frank Kingman
Broadway Bad (1933)
as Craig Cutting
Behind Office Doors (1931)
as Ronnie Wales
A Shot in the Dark (1941)
as Phillip Richards
The Call of the Canyon (1923)
as Larry Morrison
Greta Garbo: The Temptress and the Clown (1986)
as Self as Don Rafael Brull (archive footage)
The Firebird (1934)
as Herman Brandt
Is My Face Red? (1932)
as William Poster
The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927)
as Paris
Romance of the Rio Grande (1941)
as Ricardo de Vega
World Premiere (1941)
as Mark Saunders
The White Cockatoo (1935)
as Jim Sundean
Mandalay (1934)
as Tony Evans
Hollywood (1923)
as Ricardo Cortez
The City That Never Sleeps (1924)
as Mark Roth
Screen Snapshots (Series 10, No. 8) (1931)
as Self
Big Executive (1933)
as Victor Conway
I Killed That Man (1941)
as Roger Phillips
Feet of Clay (1924)
as Tony Channing
The Cat's Pajamas (1926)
Actor
The Californian (1937)
as Ramon Escobar
The Lost Zeppelin (1929)
as Tom Armstrong
The Pony Express (1925)
as Jack Weston
The Gentleman from America (1923)
Actor
Children of Jazz (1923)
as Ted Carter
Reckless Living (1931)
as Curly
Tomorrow We Live (1942)
as The Ghost, Alexander Caesar Martin
Volcano (1926)
as Stéphane Séquineau
The Phantom in the House (1929)
as Paul Wallis
Not So Long Ago (1925)
as Billy Ballard
New Orleans (1929)
as Jim Morley
The Next Corner (1924)
as Don Arturo