James Victor was a Dominican actor best known for playing the oafish Sgt. Jaime Mendoza on the action-adventure series Zorro. The Family Channel show ran from 1990 to 1993 and followed the story of Don Diego de la Vega, who lived a double life as El Zorro.
Victor also had roles on the series The Lloyd Bridges Show, My Three Sons, I Spy, Family Affair, Adam-12, Kung Fu, Police Story, The Amazing Spider-Man, The White Shadow, Lou Grant, Falcon Crest, Hunter, The A-Team, Remington Steele and Murder, She Wrote.
A chance encounter with writer, director and performer John Cassavetes led Victor to study with Cassavetes at a workshop he had co-founded with theater director Burt Lane (actress Diane Lane's father). Victor became a protégé and worked with the auteur on the films Shadows (Cassavetes’ directorial debut), Too Late Blues and Faces, on which Victor served as an assistant director.
James Victor was a Dominican actor best known for playing the oafish Sgt. Jaime Mendoza on the action-adventure series Zorro. The Family Channel show ran from 1990 to 1993 and followed the story of Don Diego de la Vega, who lived a double life as El Zorro.
Victor also had roles on the series The Lloyd Bridges Show, My Three Sons, I Spy, Family Affair, Adam-12, Kung Fu, Police Story, The Amazing Spider-Man, The White Shadow, Lou Grant, Falcon Crest, Hunter, The A-Team, Remington Steele and Murder, She Wrote.
A chance encounter with writer, director and performer John Cassavetes led Victor to study with Cassavetes at a workshop he had co-founded with theater director Burt Lane (actress Diane Lane's father). Victor became a protégé and worked with the auteur on the films Shadows (Cassavetes’ directorial debut), Too Late Blues and Faces, on which Victor served as an assistant director.
Victor also appeared in the films Fuzz, starring Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch; Rolling Thunder, with William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones; Borderline, with Charles Bronson; Losin’ It, starring Tom Cruise; The Telephone, starring Whoopi Goldberg; Stand and Deliver, starring Edward James Olmos in an Oscar-nominated performance; and Casa de mi Padre, starring Will Ferrell.
After graduating from his New York City high school in 1958, Victor got his start in entertainment by working in the mailroom at a Disney office in Manhattan. He later joined a bilingual theater company, El Nuevo Circulo Dramatico.
Victor died June 20, 2016, in Hollywood, California. He was 76.
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