A Martinez
A Martinez can’t possibly be 64 years old. Seriously. But if you check out his imdb.com entry, you can see it’s true: his first appearance on TV, at age 20, was in 1968, and he has been working in film and television ever since. Without pause. Without a break. For almost 45 years.
A (for Adolfo, though he hasn’t used that since the very beginning of his career) is essentially timeless. This utterly natural, devastatingly handsome Latino actor of Mexican and Native American origin looks pretty much the same as he looked during his time as half of the hugely popular “Eden and Cruz” couple on Santa Barbara (and yes, that was twenty years ago). He’s moved back and forth from film to daytime TV to nighttime dramas with a quiet and apparently effortless ease that’s racked up more than 125 titles–just titles, not episodes, including years of daily work on soaps like General Hospital and One Life to Live and most recently Bold and the Beautiful. He’s done serious drama like L.A. Law and–just last season—Longmire, action-adventure like The Cowboys with John Wayne–John Wayne, people!–and even cheesy sci-fi like The Terminators and MegaPython vs. Gatoroid. No, really.
And he’s been doing it for almost half a century. What’s most amazing, too, is that he has consistently (though not exclusively) played Latino and Native American characters, true to his heritage, even back in the decades when most Latino roles were being played by Italians, Greeks, and Scandinavians in brownface. And that tradition continues; it’s interesting to note that his current and future projects include roles as a Latino in California Winter, a Native American in Jimmy Picard, and an Anglo in Symphoria. (It’s also interesting to note that all those projects, and others, are completed and unreleased or in post; the man has more projects in production than most actors have completed and released in the last two years.)
Now A Martinez is in California Solo, a cool little indie film starring Thomas Carlyle (Trainspotting, 28 Weeks Later, SGU Stargate: Universe). It made a splash at Sundance, and now it’s seeing a limited release (New York and L.A.) on Friday, November 30. You can catch a glimpse of Martinez in the trailer here.
But let’s end with a (sorry, low-quality) moment from The View that gives you a brief for real insight into A Martinez as a professional and a man: an unexpected reunion with Marcy Walker of Santa Barbara on The View. Yes, it’s six years old, but the obvious grace of the man and the affection that Walker has for him hasn’t changed. That’s the thing about A Martinez: nothing has changed. And that’s amazing.
Slider photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images
