Renault Renaldo Duncan was born Casile Dumitree Cughienas on April 23, 1904 in Romania. Almost nothing is known about his early years because of his own apparent unwillingness to supply such information. What does seem likely is that he arrived in Baltimore in the early 1920's aboard a coal ship, changed his name several times and worked his way into the motion-picture business in New York.
His first starring role in a feature film was Fifty-Fifty in 1925. Renaldo was signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1928. His first role in a major film was that of Esteban, a tragic romantic figure in The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929), based on the novel by Thornton Wilder. The film was a combination silent movie and talkie, with spoken sequences at the beginning and end of the film. It was a critical, but not a financial, success. Reviewers liked the film but thought it too intellectual for the average moviegoer. In March 1929, Renaldo went to Africa for nine months of location shooting for the film Trader Horn.
He played a romantic lead opposite Edwina Booth in this early talkie that became known for its big budget look. The film cost $2 million, which made it one of the most expensive movies of its time. Critics praised the film for its documentary accuracy of the African landscape and predicted correctly that it would be a hit. With his wavy hair and Latin good looks, Renaldo seemed destined for a long and successful career as a leading man. When he got home from Africa in 1930, however, he was sued for divorce by his wife, who also sued his costar Booth, for alienation of affection. Booth won her case, but after Renaldo's divorce was finalized in 1930, Suzette notified federal authorities that the information on the passport that he used to travel to Africa was incorrect - it claimed that he had been born in Camden, New Jersey.
When Trader Horn premiered in Hollywood in 1931, Renaldo was facing perjury charges and deportation as an illegal alien. He was convicted and served eighteen months at the McNeill Island Federal Prison in Washington State. He was to have been deported upon his release, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave him a full pardon that allowed him to resume his film career. The scandal had stalled his career as a romantic lead, but he found work at Republic Studios starting in 1937, making low-budget Western feature films and serials with such newcomers as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.
In the 1941 film Outlaws of the Desert, which starred William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy, Renaldo played an Arab sheik.
Renaldo got the part of Lieutenant Berrendo in For Whom the Bell Tolls, which was released in 1943 and starred Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. The years of prerelease publicity for this epic rivaled that of Gone with the Wind and the film was a major success.
Renaldo's part was small, however, and little of the excitement about the film translated to him. It was his last major feature film. From 1945 to 1950, Renaldo also starred in eight films as the Cisco Kid, a character that had been brought to the screen in the silent film era; Warner Baxter won the Academy Award for best actor in 1929 for his portrayal of the Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona. The character was based on the short story "Robin Hood of the Old West" by O. Henry.
In 1949, Renaldo was asked to go back to the role for a syndicated television series. He accepted the part and convinced longtime vaudeville actor Leo Carrillo to join him as a comic sidekick. Renaldo argued that for the television series there should be less violence than in the movie versions, and he portrayed a sort of Don Quixote of the Old West. Renaldo was proud of the fact that the Cisco Kid never killed anybody. The series, which aired from 1951 to 1956, was a major success and for the first time in his career the actor was a household name.
Renaldo, who did his own stunts, broke his neck in 1954 when a dropped boulder that was supposed to miss him made a direct hit. A total of 156 episodes were produced. By the time the last show was filmed in 1955, Renaldo had so many injuries from doing his own stunts that he was no longer able to mount a horse.
The actor retired to a ranch in Santa Barbara, California.
Because the shows had been filmed in color, they had a long life in reruns in the 1960's and 1970's. He was often called upon to make public appearances as the Cisco Kid, which he did with great enthusiasm, often accompanied by the horse Diablo that he rode in the television series. Until his death in 1961, costar Carrillo was a frequent visitor to the ranch. Renaldo was active in the Old Spanish Days of Santa Barbara, a festival that he once chaired. In 1973 the rock group War recorded a song called "Cisco Kid, " which Renaldo promoted with a television appearance.
He died in Santa Barbara.
Duncan Renaldo has been listed as a notable author, actor. by Marquis Who's Who.
(Enjoy 26 Digitally Restored Episodes of the Classic Weste...)
(Get ready to be transported back to the Golden Age of tel...)
(United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2.4 DVD: it WILL NOT ...)
book
He impressed interviewers as a thoughtful and soft-spoken man who was filled with endless enthusiasm for the acting profession and for the role that made him famous.
He married his first wife, Suzette, and fathered a son in the early 1920's. In 1939 he married Lea Rosenblatt and the marriage ended in divorce seven years later. The couple had three children. In 1955 he married his third wife, Audrey.
