Monday, August 28, 2006

Chris-Pin Martin (1893 - 1953)

Chris-Pin Martin was born in Tucson, Arizona of Mexican parents. He made his earliest film appearance in 1911, playing an Indian. Wall-eyed and chubby, with a distinctive high-pitched voice, Martin provided comic relief in dozens of B westerns, notably as Cesar Romero's sidekick Pancho in the "Cisco Kid" films of the 1930s.

He is also memorable as Chris in "Stagecoach" (1939) and as Gordito in "The Mark of Zorro" (1940). His other credits include "Billy the Kid" (1930), "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943), "The Fugitive" (1947), and "Mexican Hayride" (1948). His last film was "Mesa of Lost Women" (1953) in which he played Pancho the Jeep Driver. Martin died of a heart attack at 59, while addressing a Moose Lodge meeting in Montebello, California.