Leo Carrillo

Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo, was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist.

Although he played stereotypical Latinos, Leo Carrillo was part of an old and respected Californio family. His great-great grandfather, José Raimundo Carrillo, was an early Criollo settler of San Diego, California. His great-grandfather Carlos Antonio Carrillo was Governor of Alta California from 1837 to 1838, his great-uncle, José Antonio Carrillo, was a Californio defender and three-time mayor of Los Angeles, and his paternal grandfather, Pedro Carrillo, who was educated in Boston, was a writer.

The family moved from San Diego to Los Angeles then to Santa Monica, where Carrillo’s father Juan José Carrillo, served as the city’s police chief and later the first mayor. His cousin was Broadway star William Gaxton. Proud of his heritage, Leo Carrillo wrote a book, The California I Love, published shortly before his death in 1961.

A university graduate, Leo Carrillo worked as a newspaper cartoonist for the San Francisco Examiner before turning to acting on Broadway. In Hollywood, he appeared in more than 90 films, including The Gay Desperado, in which he usually played supporting or character roles.