Ramon Navarro

RAMON NAVARRO d1968. Mexican silent film actor who became a major star of the 1920-30s earning $100,000 per film. He entered films in 1917 in bit parts and supplemented his income by working as a singing waiter. His friends actors and directors began to promote him as a rival to Rudolph Valentino, so he changed his name to "Novarro" and from 1923, he began to play more prominent roles. In 1925, he achieved his greatest success in Ben Hur where his revealing costumes caused a sensation and he was elevated into the Hollywood elite. With Rudolf Valentino's death in 1926, he became the screen's leading Latin actor. He was popular as a swashbuckler in action roles and considered one of the great romantic lead actors of his day. He appeared with Norma Shearer in The Student Prince (1927) and with Joan Crawford in Across to Singapore (1928). However he remains best known for Scaramouche (1923) and Matahari (1932). Ramon Navarro was murdered aged 69 on October 30th 1968 by brothers Paul and Tom Ferguson (aged 22 and 17) whom he had hired from an agency. According to the prosecution in the murder case, the two young men believed that a large sum of money was hidden in his house. The prosecution accused the brothers of torturing Novarro for several hours to force him to reveal where the non-existent money was hidden. They left the house with $20 which they took from his bathrobe pocket. Novarro had died as a result of asphyxiation. The two perpetrators were caught and sentenced to long prison terms, but released on probation in the mid-1970s