Cantinflas

Mario Moreno Reyes (August 12, 1911 - April 20, 1993), better known as Cantinflas, was a Mexican actor, circus performer and comedian. Charlie Chaplin once called him "the funniest man in the world."

Related Topics:
August 12 - 1911 - April 20 - 1993 - Mexican - Actor - Circus - Comedian - Charlie Chaplin

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Cantinflas did not start his professional life as an entertainer, but was an infantryman and later a professional boxer before he joined the entertainment world as a dancer. He started out performing at a circus in the 1930s. In 1935, he joined the Folies Bergere theater, becoming a popular figure on Mexico's theater scene. He also appeared in a few movies during that time, but it was in 1940 that he finally became a movie star, after shooting Ahí está el detalle ("There's the rub," literally "There is the detail"). The phrase that gave that movie its name became a Cantinflas catch phrase for the rest of his career. From there on, he went on to make more than 50 feature films, becoming a widely known entertainer and legendary comic all over Latin America and in Spain.

Related Topics:
Infantryman - Boxer - Dancer - 1930s - 1935 - Folies Bergere - Mexico - 1940 - Catch phrase - Latin America - Spain

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He went to Hollywood in the 1950s, making two popular movies in English, Around the World in Eighty Days and Pepe.

Related Topics:
Hollywood - 1950s - Around the World in Eighty Days - Pepe

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Later, he became President of the Mexican actors' union as well as Secretary of their filmworkers' union. He invested his earnings in real estate and in the sport of bullfighting. He was so fond of bullfighting that he played his torero scenes himself.

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Cantinflas has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame and when he died in 1993, the US Senate held a minute of silence to honor his memory.

Related Topics:
Hollywood Walk of Fame - US Senate

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Among the things that endeared him to his public was his comic use of language in his films; his characters, such as El Barrendero, loved to strike up a normal conversation with anyone in the movie, and then complicate the conversation to the point where no one understood what they were talking about. This manner of talking became known as Cantinfleada, and it became common parlance for Spanish speakers to say ¡estas ! (loosely translated as you're pulling a 'Cantinflas'! or you're 'Cantinflassing'!) whenever someone became hard to understand in conversation. The Real Academia Española has included the verb cantinflear in its dictionary.

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On October 16, 2003, a controversy surfaced over alleged abusive behaviour by Cantinflas's son toward him.

Related Topics:
October 16 - 2003

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The band Mindless Self Indulgence released a song on their album Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy about Cantinflas called "Whipstickagostop."

Related Topics:
Mindless Self Indulgence - Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy

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Great Grandfather of Gregory Thomas Garcia

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