# Starring Fidel Castro

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starring-fidel-castro/773168>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 27, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starring-fidel-castro/773168 "2016-11-27T16:12:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starring-fidel-castro/773168/1 "2016-11-27T16:12:29Z")

</div>

Now that the Cuban leader has passed on, I just wanted to take note of the many portrayals of Castro or a suspiciously Castro-like character. The Latin-American Beaded revolutionary became kind of a stock character in 1960s American TV shows and films, often played by unlikely actors

**Peter Falk** as “Ramos Clemente” in “The Mirror”, a 1961 episode of _The Twilight Zone_ You get the feeling they kinda wanted something like this to happen to the real Castro

**John Vernon** (Dean Wormer from _Animal House!_) as Cuban revolutionary “Rico Parra” in Alfred Hitchcock’s **Topaz** (1969)

**Martin Landau** on the pilot episode of “Mission Impossible” impersonates bearded uniformed “General Rio Dominguez” of “Santa Costa”.

**Leonard Nimoy** , as “Paris”, the disguise expert (who takes over that role after Martin Landau’s departure) in “The Bode”, his debut episode in 1969, disguises himself as “El Leader/ El Lider”, a suspiciously Castro-like bearded revolutionary.  
Castro himself has been depicted as a character a number of times (52 entries on the imdb), played by such folks as \*\*Jack Palance, Michael Sorich \*\* (three separate times), **Christopher Walken, Will Ferrell** (!! on Saturday Night Live), **Joe Montegna** , and, in _Watchmen_ by **John Kobylka**

[http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0028277/?ref\_=fn\_ch\_ch\_1](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0028277/?ref_=fn_ch_ch_1)

According to the internet movie data base, Castro himself appeared as an extra in a couple of 1946 films:

> **[Fidel Castro - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004242/?ref_=tt_trv_trv)**
>
> Fidel Castro. Actor: Araaayyyyy!!!. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in Birán, Holguin Province, Cuba, the fifth of nine children of Ángel María Bautista Castro y Argiz, a plantation owner originally from Galicia, Spain, who operated a plantation...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starring-fidel-castro/773168/2 "2016-11-27T16:58:23Z")

</div>

Woody Allen in _Bananas_ deserves a mention, although that was 1971.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starring-fidel-castro/773168/3 "2016-11-27T17:06:10Z")

</div>

> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Woody Allen in _Bananas_ deserves a mention, although that was 1971.

I just remembered I had a History prof who said the 1960s didn’t end until 1974 and Nixon’s resignation, so maybe _Bananas_ really does count.