Xavier Cugat(1900-1990)
- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Born in Spain, Xavier Cugat's family moved to Havana, Cuba, when he was
three. Always musically inclined, he packed up and moved to Los
Angeles, where he worked as a cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times
newspaper during the day and labored to put together a band at night.
After a few years of playing smaller clubs in the L.A. area, Cugat
finally got his break when he and his band secured a job at the
prestigious Coconut Grove nightclub in 1928. His style of music caught
on, and Cugat was instrumental in bringing Latin music to the attention
of the US public. In the '30s and '40s he was nicknamed "The Rumba
King" because of his popularization of that Latin dance. In Cugat's
film appearances he usually played himself, even if the character had a
name other than Xavier Cugat, and he and his band appeared in several
memorable MGM musicals in the '40s. After suffering a stroke in 1971,
Xavier Cugat retired.
