The Cesar Romero

Today we celebrate the mustache of Don Diego de la Vega's uncle from the original Zorro.

Don Diego de la Vega's Uncle.  His name is my name, too.

No, of course not.  Today we celebrate Cesar "The Joker" Romero, right after the jump...

"Hey, do I hit your kids? Oh, actually, I do."

"WHAAAT?"  You might be saying?  Yes, I'm sure a few of you have never even noticed, or remembered from your childhood in the sixties/recent re-runs.  Take a look.

"Shhh...there's something in the belfry."

Now take another look.

"You want me to shave what?"

Yep.  As clear as friggin' day.  I never noticed as a child, but when you start seeing reruns it's painful how obvious that mustache is.

"Surprise!"

The sixties were time for love.  A time for peace.  And a time for well payed Cuban actors to demand the keeping of their trademark mustaches, forcing the crew to paint over it.

"Damn, I'm smug."

Could you imagine if today's actors had the effrontery to pull something like that off?

From top left to bottom right: 
Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Luke Skywalker, and Heath Ledger

Well, I could imagine Jack Nicholson demanding the joker to have a mustache.  Underneath (or...towering over?) a '89 Tim Burton - he probably would have gotten away with it.  Something tells me, however, that Heath Ledger and Mark Hamil didn't/don't have that kind of street cred.

I wanna see this movie with today's Batman villains.  Speaking of which, I cannot wait to see Anne Hathaway in that suit.  Literally.  I'm not waiting at this very moment.

Unfortunately, Cesar Romero left us in 1994 trying to save twelve Cuban children from a great white shark while casually boating around the Gulf of Mexico.  

"Robin!  You're not gonna believe this..."

After jumping into the water, hoisting the children into the boat, and punching the shark in the face he went home and promptly died from bronchitis and pneumonia.  And it's all true!

 This is not a video of that happening, by the way.

Well, the second part's true.  But Romero's Jokerstasche lives on in the form of dvds and syndicated television.  This man shares not only an equally great-mustached horror director's name, but a role that many shoes have stepped into after.  Many, sadly, clean shaven.

"Oh you look nervous.  Is it the mustache?"

 I'm just saying.

Luke

Co-Creator/Moderator

 FAMOUSTACHE!   

Don't be ashamed of your love for mustache.

Tell your friends about this mustache! 
Trust me, they wanna know.