>
Mario Moreno 'Cantinflas'
A diminutive, renowned, high-octane performer of the Spanish-speaking world, primarily in Mexican films from 1936, Cantinflas began his entertainment career at age 16 as a song-and-dance man in "carpas," variety shows staged in tents. He also performed as a circus clown, a bullfighting clown and an amateur bullfighter, and gradually developed the star persona which would serve him so well in his 50 films. His early films include his debut in "No Te Enganes Corazon/Don't Deceive Yourself, My Heart" (1936) and "El Signo de la Muerte/Sign of Death" (1939), but it was "Ahi Esta el Detalle/There Is the Detail" (1940), which began his reign as the Spanish-speaking world's most popular comic at the advent of Mexican cinema's "Golden Age."