
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 3, 1994                   TAG: 9401030062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Short

CESAR ROMERO DIES AT 86

Cesar Romero, the tall, suave actor who capped a long film career with a popular television role as The Joker on "Batman" in the 1960s, has died at age 86.

Romero died Saturday night at St. John's Hospital and Health Center, hospital spokesman Gary Miereanu said Sunday. Death resulted from complications related to a blood clot after being hospitalized with severe bronchitis and pneumonia, said Miereanu.

Romero was often cast as a gigolo or "the other man," but he claimed to have escaped the title of Latin Lover.

"When I started in motion pictures in 1934, they said I was going to be the next Valentino," he recalled in 1984. "I was never a leading man, and very seldom did I do a picture where I got the girl. But I was saddled with the label, because I had a Latin name. My background is Cuban, but I'm from New York City. I'm a Latin from Manhattan."

With his striking handsomeness and sturdy build, Romero proved a reliable actor in musicals, comedies, dramas and Westerns. He made his final big impact with the public as the evil, pun-cracking Joker in the faddish "Batman" series of the 1960s.

Romero was born into a distinguished Cuban family in New York City on Feb. 15, 1907. "My grandfather, Jose Marti, was the liberator of Cuba," he remarked in 1984. "The Cuban war of independence was planned in my grandfather's house."

by CNB