Wall Street investor transforms into dashing Hollywood star for over five decades

ALBANY, Ga. - April 6, 2017 - PRLog -- BearManor Media announces the release of The Magnificent Heel The Life and Films of Ricardo Cortez by Dan Van Neste.

With his dark good looks, muscular physique, heavy-lidded bedroom eyes, and easy smile, amateur boxer and Wall Street business man Jacob Krantz left Wall Street to cut a dashing figure on the silver screen for over five decades. Few knew that he was a Jewish man, when Paramount Pictures signed him in 1922, changed his name from Jacob Krantz to Ricardo Cortez, and widely publicized him as a "Latin lover" in the style of Rudolph Valentino, Antonio Moreno, and Ramon Navarro.

He worked in silent movies with legendary directors Cecil B. DeMille and D. W. Griffith, and top stars, such as Lon Chaney and Greta Garbo. When chaos took hold of topsy turvy Hollywood as the industry converted from silent movies to talking pictures, Cortez successfully transitioned through Frank Capra's The Younger Generation (1929), Montana Moon (1930) with Joan Crawford, as Sam Spade in the first film adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (1931), Wonder Bar (1934) with Al Jolson, The Big Shakedown (1934) with Bette Davis, Walking Dead (1936) with Boris Karloff, Charlie Chan in Reno (1939), and John Ford's The Last Hurrah (1958).

Cortez appeared in more than a hundred films in a rogue's gallery of sexy wastrels and troublemakers to more nefarious gangsters and maniacal murderers. In 1934, one astute critic proclaimed him "the magnificent heel."

Relive his dramatic story, from his poverty-stricken childhood to Wall Street and on through Hollywood triumphs, tragedies, and scandals. The author draws from rare material gathered from key libraries and studio archives, much of which has never been published.

160 illustrations, including portraits, scene stills, and memorabilia from Cortez' personal collection, including his last passport, scrapbook, a contract, and letters. Index, Bibliography, and extensive End Notes.

About the author: Dan Van Neste articles have appeared in Classic Images and Films of the Golden Age, and he is the author of The Whistler: Stepping Into the Shadows. He currently lives in Lansing, Michigan.

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Available exclusively from BearManor Media in hardback, paperback, and ebook editions.

About BearManor Media: The award-winning and Pulitzer-nominated press publishes cutting-edge entertainment books, audio books, e-books, CDs, and DVDs on movies, television, radio, theater, animation, and more. Founded in 2001 by Publisher Ben Ohmart, the BearManor Media catalog now features more than 900 outstanding subjects from the obscure to the eminent. Visit www.bearmanormedia.com

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