Tony Martinez (actor)
Encyclopedia
Tony Martinez was an actor, singer, and bandleader
originally from San Juan
, Puerto Rico
, best remembered for having played the Mexican farmhand Pepino Garcia in the ABC
and CBS
situation comedy
The Real McCoys
from 1957 to 1963. Along with Bill Dana, Leo Carrillo
, and Desi Arnaz, Sr.
, Martinez was among the earliest Latinos featured in regular television roles during the early years of the medium.
to study at the Juilliard School
at the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts. He also studied acting and gained small parts in several films in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1954, he made his first television appearance as himself on The Colgate Comedy Hour
, again as himself. He also appeared as himself with his band, Tony Martinez and His Mambo, in the 1956 musical picture Rock Around the Clock
.
For his role on The Real McCoys, Martinez was discovered by the producer-writing team of the brothers Irving Pincus
(1914–1984) and Norman Pincus (1906–1978), while Martinez was performing at a club in Hollywood, California
. Martinez sang and played five instruments. Kathleen Nolan
, as Kate McCoy, one of the last two surviving members of The Real McCoys cast, recalls that Martinez failed to contact the Pincus brothers because he thought that their interest in his talent was merely a joke, but the producers pursued Martinez and signed him to the cast. Nolan, president of the Screen Actors Guild
from 1975–1980, called Martinez's selection "a major breakthrough in terms of minority representation on television. It may not have been the representation that we are seeking now, but it certainly was a breakthrough to have a major character on television that was not white... He was just a natural, and he had this enormous sense of comedy timing." Nolan noted too that the Pepino character despite the stereotype was "wise" and often used common sense to help the McCoys resolve their family squabbles.
, F Troop
, My Favorite Martian
, and the 1970 series Storefront Lawyers, renamed Men at Law.
In the middle 1960s, Martinez began appearing for nearly forty years and 2,245 performances of the role of Sancho Panza
in Man of La Mancha
on Broadway
, based on Miguel de Cervantes
's novel Don Quixote. He played opposite a dozen men in the role of Don Quixote, including Richard Kiley and Jose Ferrer
. Beginning in 1967, Martinez participated in a national tour of the Tony Award
-winning musical.
In the early 1980s, Martinez was the executive director of the Institute of Motion Pictures, the government film commission of Puerto Rico. In Nevada
, where he spent his later years, Martinez used "PEPINO" for his vanity license plates.
His last television appearance was at the age of eighty in the spring of 2000 in The Real McCoys Reunion, broadcast by the former The Nashville Network
. Martinez died of natural causes at the age of eighty-two in a hospital in Las Vegas
. He had five children, David, Renee, Christian, Lessette, and Kimra. At the time of his death, he had been married for twenty-one years to Myra Martinez of Las Vegas.
Lydia Reed
, who played Tallahassee "Hassie" McCoy, is the other surviving cast member of The Real McCoys. The series featured Walter Brennan
in the starring role of Grandpa Amos McCoy, Richard Crenna
as Luke McCoy, and Michael Winkelman
as Little Luke, the younger brother of Luke McCoy. Andy Clyde
and Madge Blake
played a popular brother-sister team, George and Flora McMichael.
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
originally from San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, best remembered for having played the Mexican farmhand Pepino Garcia in the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys is an American situation comedy co-produced by Danny Thomas' "Marterto Productions", in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's "Westgate" company...
from 1957 to 1963. Along with Bill Dana, Leo Carrillo
Leo Carrillo
Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo , was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist.-Family roots:...
, and Desi Arnaz, Sr.
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...
, Martinez was among the earliest Latinos featured in regular television roles during the early years of the medium.
Early years
Martinez came to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to study at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
at the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts. He also studied acting and gained small parts in several films in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1954, he made his first television appearance as himself on The Colgate Comedy Hour
The Colgate Comedy Hour
The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show stars many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou...
, again as himself. He also appeared as himself with his band, Tony Martinez and His Mambo, in the 1956 musical picture Rock Around the Clock
Rock Around the Clock (film)
Rock Around the Clock is the title of a 1956 Musical film that featured Bill Haley and His Comets along with Alan Freed, The Platters, Tony Martinez and His Band, and Freddie Bell and His Bellboys. It was produced by B-movie king Sam Katzman and directed by Fred F...
.
For his role on The Real McCoys, Martinez was discovered by the producer-writing team of the brothers Irving Pincus
Irving Pincus
Irving Pincus was a film and television writer and producer who created the ABC and CBS situation comedy, The Real McCoys, which aired in prime time from 1957 to 1963 and subsequently in rebroadcasts over many years....
(1914–1984) and Norman Pincus (1906–1978), while Martinez was performing at a club in Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Martinez sang and played five instruments. Kathleen Nolan
Kathleen Nolan
Kathleen Nolan is an American actress. She is sometimes confused with actress Jeanette Nolan. From 1957 to 1962, she played the role of Kate McCoy, a housewife in her late twenties, in the Walter Brennan series The Real McCoys....
, as Kate McCoy, one of the last two surviving members of The Real McCoys cast, recalls that Martinez failed to contact the Pincus brothers because he thought that their interest in his talent was merely a joke, but the producers pursued Martinez and signed him to the cast. Nolan, president of the Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
from 1975–1980, called Martinez's selection "a major breakthrough in terms of minority representation on television. It may not have been the representation that we are seeking now, but it certainly was a breakthrough to have a major character on television that was not white... He was just a natural, and he had this enormous sense of comedy timing." Nolan noted too that the Pepino character despite the stereotype was "wise" and often used common sense to help the McCoys resolve their family squabbles.
Later career
After The Real McCoys folded, Martinez appeared as a guest star in only a few other television programs, such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E.The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...
, F Troop
F Troop
F Troop is a satirical American television sitcom that originally aired for two seasons on ABC-TV. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965 and concluded its run on April 6, 1967 with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was filmed in black-and-white, but the show...
, My Favorite Martian
My Favorite Martian
My Favorite Martian is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963 to May 1, 1966 for 107 episodes...
, and the 1970 series Storefront Lawyers, renamed Men at Law.
In the middle 1960s, Martinez began appearing for nearly forty years and 2,245 performances of the role of Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
in Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...
on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, based on Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
's novel Don Quixote. He played opposite a dozen men in the role of Don Quixote, including Richard Kiley and Jose Ferrer
José Ferrer
José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón , best known as José Ferrer, was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director...
. Beginning in 1967, Martinez participated in a national tour of the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
-winning musical.
In the early 1980s, Martinez was the executive director of the Institute of Motion Pictures, the government film commission of Puerto Rico. In Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, where he spent his later years, Martinez used "PEPINO" for his vanity license plates.
His last television appearance was at the age of eighty in the spring of 2000 in The Real McCoys Reunion, broadcast by the former The Nashville Network
The Nashville Network
The Nashville Network, usually referred to as TNN, was an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming included music videos, taped concerts, movies, syndicated programs, and numerous talk shows...
. Martinez died of natural causes at the age of eighty-two in a hospital in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. He had five children, David, Renee, Christian, Lessette, and Kimra. At the time of his death, he had been married for twenty-one years to Myra Martinez of Las Vegas.
Lydia Reed
Lydia Reed
Lydia Reed is an American former child actress best known for her role as Tallahassee "Hassie" McCoy from 1957 to 1963 in 145 episodes of the ABC situation comedy The Real McCoys, starring Walter Brennan in the title role of Grandpa Amos McCoy...
, who played Tallahassee "Hassie" McCoy, is the other surviving cast member of The Real McCoys. The series featured Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on three separate occasions, which is currently the record for most wins.-Early life:...
in the starring role of Grandpa Amos McCoy, Richard Crenna
Richard Crenna
Richard Donald Crenna was an American motion picture, television, and radio actor and occasional television director. He starred in such motion pictures as The Sand Pebbles, Wait Until Dark, Body Heat, the first three Rambo movies, Hot Shots! Part Deux, and The Flamingo Kid...
as Luke McCoy, and Michael Winkelman
Michael Winkelman
Michael L. Winkelman was an American child actor best known for his role as Little Luke McCoy from 1957 to 1963 in 157 episodes of the situation comedy television series, The Real McCoys, starring Walter Brennan in the title role of Grandpa Amos McCoy, with Richard Crenna as Luke McCoy, older...
as Little Luke, the younger brother of Luke McCoy. Andy Clyde
Andy Clyde
Andy Clyde was a Scottish movie and TV actor whose career spanned more than four decades. He broke into silent films in 1925 as a Mack Sennett comic...
and Madge Blake
Madge Blake
Madge Blake was an American character actress best remembered for her role as Aunt Harriet Cooper on ABC's Batman TV series of the 1960s.-Early life:...
played a popular brother-sister team, George and Flora McMichael.