page_title: Ricardo Montalbán
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Ricardo Montalbán / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Ricardo Montalban and wife Georgiana Young ca. 1950
context_page_description: Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Meriño, KSG was a prominent actor in American television and film. Born in Mexico, Montalbán's career spanned seven decades, during which he became known for many performances in a variety of genres, from crime and drama to musicals and comedy.
  Among his notable roles was Armando in the Planet of the Apes film series from the early 1970s, wherein he starred in Escape from the Planet of the Apes and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and Khan Noonien Singh the augmented being in both the original Star Trek series and the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
  Ricardo Montalbán played Mr. Roarke on the television series Fantasy Island. He won an Emmy Award for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993.
  Montalbán was professionally active into his 80s, when he provided voices for animated films and commercials, and appeared as Grandfather Valentin in the Spy Kids franchise. During the 1970s and '80s he was a spokesman in automobile advertisements for Chrysler, including those in which he extolled the "rich Corinthian leather" used for the Cordoba's interior.
context_section_description: Montalbán married actress and model Georgiana Young (born Georgiana Paula Belzer; September 30, 1923 – November 13, 2007) in 1944. Georgiana was the half-sister of actresses Sally Blane, Polly Ann Young, and Loretta Young. After 63 years of marriage, Young died from undisclosed causes on November 13, 2007. She was 84 years old. Her death preceded Montalbán's by one year and two months. They had four children together:  Laura, Mark, Anita and Victor.
  Montalbán was a practicing Catholic, once claiming that his religion was the most important thing in his life. He was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California. In 1998, Pope John Paul II made him a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (KSG), the highest honor a Roman Catholic lay person can receive from the Church. In 1986, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, he recorded a public service announcement celebrating United States generosity and hospitality to him as a foreign-born actor.
  His autobiography Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds was published in January 1980 by Doubleday.
  For many years, he followed a strict diet and physical training regimen, giving him an enviable physique. After the release of The Wrath of Khan, director Nicholas Meyer was quick to quell any rumors of Montalbán's using prosthetics during filming.
  On January 14, 2009, Montalbán died at his home in Los Angeles at age 88. According to his son-in-law, Gilbert Smith, he died of "complications from advancing age". The precise cause of death was revealed to be congestive heart failure. He is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
  In the 2018 film My Dinner with Hervé, Montalbán was played by Andy García.
caption: Montalbán with his longtime wife Georgiana Young, c. 1950
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