Hector Elizondo - biography

“I guess I work well with others I handle younger actors well.”

“Which reminds me of a fortune cookie: you often find your destiny on the path you take to avoid it.”

“I started in 1946 in radio.  I was ten years old.  I was discovered singing in a school play.  Someone was in the audience and it’s six degrees of separation.”

“Yes, and it’s my third movie with Richard.  American Gigolo was my first.”

“Food is a passion.  Food is love.”

“You can trust a Neil Simon script.  Every dot.  Every dash; that pause means something.  He takes all the jokes out, practically.”

“I’m attracted to pathos, because life is mostly pathos.  I’ve had a lot of it in my life.”

“I’ve dodged bullets but there’s no scandal in my life.”

“I love the fact that it starts from there, and you don’t know where it’s gonna go.  Wait long enough - love will find you.  Everything’s a surprise.  When you think you’ve got it all figured out...  as Emerson said, the dice of God are always loaded.”

“I’m a parent, especially when you’ve had the intense parenting the way I had.  It’s all in the bank.  It’s all in the great experience bank.  Those are your secrets.  That’s the stuff that makes your work rich, that’s what you dip into.”

“I started in radio, again accidentally.  I wasn’t looking for this kind of work at all.”

“I used to work, part time, in a deli, in those days when your parents made you work just so you should know what work was like.  And you’d make 4, 5, 6, ten dollars.”

“I work with Garry no matter what.  What I wanted to keep going was the streak.”

“On those, I’ve said it before, I work free.  It’s the waiting they pay me for.”

“You know, a low budget, you have to work harder.  You have to plan well; you don’t have much time to rehearse.”

“Definitely not a sitcom, that’s my first condition.  No sitcoms.”

“I never learned to cook; I was a little spoiled as far as that’s concerned.”

“I think you can tell the human condition better through comedy.”

“Pretty Woman was the easiest job I’ve ever done.  I just wore the right toupee.”

“Sometimes I just walk through; I just show up, as in The Other Sister.”

“The fact that that’s the difference between Mexicans and Cubans is pronounced.  It’s so immediately recognizable, the way a Cuban speaks, the way a Cuban moves the hands.”

“You’re at the top of your game if you do comedy.”

Hector Elizondo has appeared in the following films:
The Fat Black Pussycat (1963)
Born to Win (1971)
Valdez Is Coming (1971)
Pocket Money (1972)
Stand Up and Be Counted (1972)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Report to the Commissioner (1975)
Diary of the Dead (1976)
Cuba (1979)
American Gigolo (1980)
The Fan (1981)
Young Doctors in Love (1982)
The Flamingo Kid (1984)
Private Resort (1985)
Nothing in Common (1986)
Overboard (1987)
Beaches (1988)
Leviathan (1989)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Frankie and Johnny (1991)
Necessary Roughness (1991)
Being Human (1993)
Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
Backstreet Justice (1994)
Getting Even with Dad (1994)
Dear God (1996)
Turbulence (1997)
Entropy (1999)
Runaway Bride (1999)
The Other Sister (1999)
The Princess Diaries (2001)
How High (2001)
Tortilla Soup (2001)
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)
The Celestine Prophecy (2006)
I-See-You.Com (2006)
Georgia Rule (2007)
Music Within (2007)
Valentine’s Day (2010)