Ricardo Montalbán died on January 14, 2009 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 88. He was a devoted Catholic and once said that his faith was the “most important thing” in his life.
In 1998, Pope John Paul II made him a Knight Commander of St. Gregory, the highest honor bestowed upon non-clergy in the Roman Catholic Church.
I know that I read somewhere about him turning down roles, or asking that the steaminess of roles be turned down, because he felt that acting in “love scenes” would be an act of unfaithfulness of his wife.
Hollywood is full of stories about what a gentleman he was, how fair and how unassuming. Here is a note from the voice acting community, via Livejournal:
Interesting side note; when the decision was made to hire Ricardo Montalban to voice Armand Guitierrez in “Freakazoid!”, from what I understand, the staff on the show (and correct me if you know otherwise, Mr. D!) were prepared to “back up the truck” and offer him whatever it cost to get him to play the role–only to be pleasantly surprised when he told them he didn’t want to be paid one cent more than anyone else in the voice cast, as they had worked long and hard to learn their craft, while he, in his opinion, was just a guy with a nice voice and some acting skill, but no voice acting work beyond Chrysler commercials in the early 80s.
(Which leads to noting that, apparently, he was a consummate professional, always showing up to every recording session well ahead of schedule and never complaining if asked for a different read or if the script had some jokes that might have come off as gentle mocking. From what I’ve heard, the producers on Kim Possible had exactly the same experience, though in the later seasons, they had to have Neil Ross fill in for him when Montalban was too ill to make sessions.)
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I decided to try this again. I re-registered the domain ages ago, and finally got around to bringing it back online today. I’ve lost a bunch of posts, but the site needed some re-working anyway.
Anne Rice has been a cryptocatholic for the past six years. With the release of her new novel, _Christ the King_, yesterday and the accompanying press that she’s doing for it she has effectively come out of the closet globally, though.
Mrs. Rice is best known for her Vampire Chronicles (Interview With A Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, …), the first of which was made into a film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.
She left the Church at the age of 18. According to interviews she’s been giving she returned to the Church in 1999 after talks with her New Orleans parish priest, who told her that she didn’t have to agree with everything that the Church teaches in order to be a Catholic — that she could return to it and continue to work out her disagreements within the light of Truth.
I have high hopes for the book, which I picked up yesterday and which my wife is currently devouring. Mrs. Rice has said some fairly inspiring things in recent interviews about the necessity of using her God-given gifts in His service. She has claimed that a lot of research and attention to historical accuracy has gone into the book and denied basing any of it on gnostic gospels. She has acknowledged the possible pitfalls in writing a story from Christ’s perspective and says she believes she has avoided them.
The book has gotten good reviews from several priests thus far, who write that it will teach many about Christ and possibly lead some to Him.
While some secular reviewers are pitching this as a complete change of direction, I always felt that the Vampire Chronicles inhabited a Christian space. In them, Rice was searching in the darkness for the light, for redemption; now she’s brought her search into the light.
[I’m writing this entry from memory on my cellphone while stuck in traffic. If I have any of the details above incorrectly, please forgive me.]
Christopher Hewett, best known as “Mr. Belvedere”, was a “very active” deacon at St. Victor’s Catholic Church in West Hollywood. He was described by many as a devout Roman Catholic.
This article contains the interesting tidbit that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas “grew up attending Catholic school and joined the Catholic Church in second grade, [then after a stint as an evangelical] began attending Mass again a few years ago.”
Harriet Miers, President Bush’s bewildering nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court, was raised Catholic but became a “born again” Evangelical in her 30s.
There is some question as to just how solidly Catholic she ever was. She graduated from Southern Methodist Law School and her sister-in-law expresses some uncertainty over how she would have
identified herself, saying:
she wasn’t sure whether Miers considered herself Catholic or Protestant growing up.
“My impression at the time and since was that she considered herself, if anything, Catholic. But she really didn’t consider it very much,” said Hecht.
While the wedding date has not yet been set, Katie Holmes is with child by Tom Cruise. Some of Tom’s Scientologist friends are suggesting a “silent birth”, presumably to minimize the amount of auditing their child later has to go through to become a “clear” Operating Thetan (OT).
Tony Danza, a Catholic, is not happy with the whole out-of-wedlock aspect.
Stephen Colbert is a practicing Catholic. He was raised Catholic and comes from a family of 11 kids.
Colbert is either a cryptocatholic or another in a long line of Hollywood “Catholics” for whom their faith plays no real role in their lives; I would like to believe the former. His Catholicism is rarely addressed in the media. One exception was an NPR interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air in which she questioned him about the tension between his Catholicism and his series of Daily Show segments, The Week In God. Beyond that, examples of Colbert discussing his Catholicism are few and far between.
“Boston” Rob Mariano, of reality show fame (Survivor, Survivor All-Stars, Amazing Race), removed a St. Anthony medallion from beneath his shirt and kissed it, praying audibly to him, in the season finale of Amazing Race 7. (He and his fiancee Amber came in second, but did manage to find what they were looking for during that particular challenge.)
