Ramón Novarro was a Mexican-American actor who rose to prominence in silent films as a ‘Latin lover.’ José Ramón Gil Samaniego was born in Durango, Mexico, and fled to Los Angeles, California, with his family to flee the Mexican Revolution in 1913.
José Ramón Gil Samaniego, better known by his stage name Ramon Novarro, was a Mexican-American film, stage, and television actor who began his career in silent films in 1917 and rose through the ranks to become a leading man and one of the most popular box office draws of the 1920s and early 1930s. MGM marketed Novarro as a ‘Latin lover,’ and with the death of Rudolph Valentino, he became a sex icon.
In Mexico, the Samaniegos was a powerful and well-respected family. Many Samaniegos had important roles in state affairs and were highly regarded by the president. Mariano Samaniego, Ramon’s grandpa, was a well-known physician in Juarez. He was the first city councilor in El Paso, Texas, and was known as a charitable and outgoing man. He was an interim governor for the state of Chihuahua.
The ‘Garden of Eden’ was the name given to the family’s estate. Emilio, Guadalupe, Rosa, Ramón, Leonor, Mariano, Luz, Antonio, José, a stillborn infant, Carmen, ngel, and Eduardo were among the thirteen children born there. The family traveled from Durango to Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution and subsequently back to Durango. Guadalupe, Rosa, and Leonor, three of Ramón’s sisters, became nuns. He was a second cousin of Dolores del Ro and Andrea Palma, two Mexican actresses.
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