Cantinflas (1911-1993)

Mexican comedian. He briefly achieved international fame when he played Passepartout, quizzical valet to the globetrotting Phineas Fogg in the lavish 1956 screen version of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.

Following the success of his screen debut, Cantinflas played the starring role in the unsuccessful American production Pepe (1960), a comedy about a Mexican ranch-hand's adventures in Hollywood.

Cantinflas, born in Mexico City, was a tent-show entertainer and circus clown before making his Mexican film debut in 1936. He subsequently averaged at least one film a year, creating characterizations based on the notion of the resourceful ‘little man’. His following was such that at one stage the Mexican government ordered, as a precautionary measure, that pawnshops should close on the day his films opened. After the failure of Pepe, he returned to Mexico and continued his starring career in local films for many years.