To most audiences, Duncan Renaldo will always be identified as film and  TV's "The Cisco Kid." However, this role occurred late in his career,  which consisted of much more than just this western character. Not much  is known about Renaldo's early life. In fact, his date and place of  birth is still questioned. The usual given birth date is April 23, 1904.  His birthplace has been generally stated as Spain--he has said that his  first memories as a child were in Spain--although Romania and even New  Jersey have been mentioned as well. An orphan, he never knew his actual  parents and was never able to ascertain the exact date and place of his  birth. He was raised and educated in various European countries and  arrived in the US in the early 1920s as a stoker on a Brazilian coal  ship. Entering the country on a 90-day seaman's permit, he stayed when  his ship caught fire at the dock and burned to the waterline. A paltry  existence as a portrait painter forced him to seek other work, and he  somehow found his way into films as a producer of short features, which  in turn led to on-camera work as an actor with MGM in 1928. The studio  capitalized on his dashing Hispanic looks and initially typed him as a  "Latin lover", but it didn't last long. In the early 1930s his career  was interrupted when he was arrested and faced deportation due to his  illegal immigrant status. The actor was eventually pardoned by President  Franklin D. Roosevelt--his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt,  had bought one of Renaldo's paintings, looked into his case and  persuaded her husband to pardon him. He returned to minor films for both  Republic and Monogram, alternating as heroic sidekick and villain. He  co-starred as one of the Three Mesquiteers in the revamped film series,  and showed up regularly in 1930s and 1940s cliffhangers, including The Painted Stallion (1937), Jungle Menace (1937), Zorro Rides Again (1937), King of the Mounties (1942), Secret Service in Darkest Africa (1943) The Tiger Woman (1944). In 1945 he began the Cisco Kid film series and transferred the character successfully to TV in the early 1950s, with Leo Carrillo  as faithful sidekick Pancho. Renaldo made the character clean-shaven  and more of a do-gooder than the roguish bandit who actually was in the  books. Renaldo retired soon after the series' demise and died years  later at Goleta Valley Community Hospital in California of lung cancer  in 1980.