Guy Williams

 - American Actor -

( 1924 - 1989 )
 


* List of the stories and he appears in :
- D 2000-002  : "The Three Caballeros Ride Again", from 2000, by Don Rosa.

 

* His biography :
    Guy Williams, whose real name was Armando Catalano, was born on January 14, 1924 in New York. After school, he worked as a male model and came to the attention of MGM and then Universal-International Studios, who put him under contract in 1952.
   Although he appeared in films such as Bonzo Goes to College, Mississippi Gambler, Seven Angry Men, Sincerely Yours, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, The Last Frontier and Man From the Alamo, Williams' parts were relatively small and it looked like his hopes of becoming a leading man were in vain.
   By the time Disney found the 6'3" actor, Williams was almost ready to give up his acting career. Luckily for Williams, he was auditioned for the role of Zorro / Don Diego de la Vega, and to his astonishment, he found himself the star of the network series. In this series, which started in 1957, Don Diego de la Vega opposes the corrupt tyrants of Spanish California as the masked swordsman, Zorro. Throughout his exploits, Diego could always count on the assistance of his faithful manservant, Bernardo.
   After the last of the anthology Zorro episodes had aired, Walt lost interest in the character, and in 1967, the Studio decided not to renew its option and let the rights revert to the Gertz estate. With the syndicated run over, Zorro became just another canceled television series. The Studio decided not to renew Williams' contract. After he left the Disney payroll, Williams worked in a number of film and television roles.
   After several years of playing an increasingly diminishing role in that series, Williams left show business and Los Angeles. He had appeared in Argentina several years earlier to promote Zorro and had enjoyed the public attention and lifestyle there. He moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and bought property in the country, opening a cattle ranch
   It was there that Guy Williams died alone, on 7 May 1989, from brain aneurysm.
 

* His place in the Barks/Rosa stories universe :
    In "The Three Caballeros Ride Again", which takes place in Mexico, Alfonso "Golden Sombrero" tells his favourite TV series is Disney's Zorro, and we can see Zorro's face on the TV screen. As Guy Williams has been the only man to play in this series, it must be him. This also gives us a clue about the date of this story. It must take place after 1957, because the series didn't exist before, and before 1960, as, according to Don Rosa, all the Barks/Rosa Duck stories happen between 1947 and 1960...
   Searching for other references to Zorro in the Barks/Rosa universe, I found two stories. In "His Majesty, McDuck", by Don Rosa, Scrooge makes the "sign of the $" (instead of Z), with asword on his ennemy's back. In "In Old California", by Barks, when the Duck are travelling into California, Donald tells his nephew that Zorro used to live around there...

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