Chris-Pin Martin

Chris-Pin Martin (born Ysabel Ponciana Chris-Pin Martin Paiz, November 19, 1893 – June 27, 1953) was an American character actor whose specialty lay in portraying comical Mexicans, particularly sidekicks in The Cisco Kid film series. He acted in over 100 films between 1925 and 1953, including over 50 westerns.

Biography

Martin was born in Tucson, Arizona, when Arizona was still a territory, the son of Toro "Bull" Martin, a Yaqui indian, and Florencia Paiz, a woman of Mexican descent. of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. He started working in Hollywood in 1911, as an extra for Universal Studios, and also worked as a recruitment agent ("runner") for hiring Latino and Latina extras needed for specific films at Hollywood studios.

In 1922, Martin produced a film, Tepee Love, a romance, starring Martin and Dolores Contreras. The film played in Glendale, California, and Burbank, California, in 1922; a second film project never was finished. By 1925, Martin had become a frequent, although unnamed character, in silent movies. His roles were as a bumbling or slow comedic character who spoke in broken English.

Martin's most remembered western film role was in nine of the Cisco Kid films playing the Kid's sidekicks Gordito and in the later films Pancho. He also appeared in the John Ford classic Stagecoach (1939) with John Wayne. He was credited in his films by other names, as well, including Chrispin Martin, Chris King Martin, Chris Martin, Cris-Pin Martin, and Ethier Crispin Martini.

Martin was adept in both drama and comedy, in films like the melodramatic The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) as "Poncho" the Mexican who reluctantly becomes a part of a lynch mob and a contrite confessor. In A Millionaire for Christy (1951) Martin plays a brief but memorable role as "Manolo", a Mexican who speaks no English.

Death

Less than five months before his 60th birthday, Martin died of a heart attack while addressing a Moose lodge meeting in the Los Angeles suburb of Montebello.

Selected filmography

References

External links

• Chris-Pin Martin at IMDb
• Chris-Pin Martin at Find a Grave

1. Chris Martin (disambiguation)
2. Viva Cisco Kid
3. The Cisco Kid
4. Ride the Man Down
5. Mesa of Lost Women
6. Stagecoach (1939 film)
7. The Mark of Zorro (1940 film)
8. Robin Hood of Monterey
9. Lucky Cisco Kid
10. Ride on Vaquero
11. Frontier Marshal (1939 film)
12. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944 film)
13. List of Western films of the 1940s
14. List of Hispanic and Latino American actors
15. The Ox-Bow Incident
16. A Millionaire for Christy
17. Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die
18. 1953 in film
19. The Cisco Kid and the Lady
20. The Bad Man (1941 film)