Cantinflas(1911-1993)

Cantinflas, born Mario Moreno, was the son of a Mexican postal employee. He studied agriculture and later medicine but often sneaked out of class to sing and dance in the streets, until one day he ran away and joined a carpa travelling company where he learned to sing, dance, acrobat, prize fight and clown. He sent money to his family but didn't want them to know what he was doing, so created the name Cantinflas for himself (which as a noun means 'lovable clown' and as a verb means 'to talk too much but say little'). He moved to Mexican Revue Theatres, and, in 1940, was seen by a film distributor, who co-founded Posa Films. Each new film was a bigger success. The character he built up was that of a poor man who succeeds in spite of himself and although he manages to emerge triumphant from complicated difficulties, he remained a man of the poor people. He was the only personality who could consistently fill the world's largest bull ring at Mexico City with a capacity of 50,000.