Nico Minardos

Nico Minardos was a Greek-American actor and producer who emigrated to the United States permanently in 1954 and became a naturalized citizen in 1960. He started his Hollywood career as an extra in the 1952 film Monkey Business and went on to appear in films such as Holiday for Lovers, Twelve Hours to Kill, It Happened in Athens, and Cannon for Cordoba. He also made guest appearances in a variety of television shows, such as Maverick, The Twilight Zone, Alias Smith and Jones, Perry Mason, Barnaby Jones, and The A-Team. He often played ethnic roles, such as Mexicans, Italians, and Greeks, due to his dark looks and accent. He also starred in and produced the 1975 film Assault on Agathon, based on the book by Alan Caillou, which was distributed by MGM but was a financial failure. He was married twice, first briefly to Deborah Jean Smith, who later married Tyrone Power, and then to Julie Minardos, with whom he had two children. He reputedly lived with Marilyn Monroe and Juliet Prowse in the 1950s. He died of natural causes in 2011 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California at age 81. He was the subject of a 2010 documentary called Finding Nico, directed by his son George.