- 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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