Leo Carrillo Biography

Fast Facts

• Toured Latin America as a goodwill ambassador for the New York World's Fair in 1960
• Attended St․ Vincent's College and paid for his tuition by working in the engineering department of Southern Pacific Railroad
• Began working as a cartoonist at the San Francisco Examiner after leaving the railroad and attended art school in his spare time
• Made his first stage appearance at an amateur benefit and later began performing on the Orpheum Circuit
• Made his screen acting debut in the short film "At the Ball Game" in 1927
• Best known as an actor, conservationist, and political cartoonist who played Pancho in "The Cisco Kid" and as Pablo Braganza in "The Gay Desperado․"
• Was appointed to the California State Park Commission in 1942 and served through his late '70s
• While working on the Southern Pacific Railroad along the California coastline, he picked up several dialects from his co-workers that he would later use on stage and learned five different languages, including Japanese and Chinese