Ricardo Montalban, the Mexican-born actor who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday morning at his home, his family said. He was 88.
Montalban had been a star in Mexican movies when MGM brought him to Hollywood in 1946.
Montalban was best known as the faintly mysterious, white-suited Mr. Roarke, who presided over a tropical island resort where visitors fulfilled their lifelong dreams — usually at the unexpected expense of a difficult life lesson.
"What you saw on the screen and on television and on talk shows, this very courtly, modest, dignified individual, that's exactly who he was,"
Montalban was no stranger to prejudice.
Montalban suffered a spinal injury in a horse fall while making a 1951 Clark Gable Western, "Across the Wide Missouri," and thereafter walked with a limp he managed to mask during his performances.
survived by daughters Laura and Anita, sons Victor and Mark and six grandchildren.
clipped from: abcnews.go.com 
