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Cesar Romero: The Joker is Wild

Dynamic and debonair, Cesar Romero was best known for creating the role of the Joker in the 1960s Batman television series. As the first actor to play Batman and Robin’s villainous nemesis, Romero established the character’s giddy, manic tone and the distinctive laugh that subsequent actors like Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, and Joaquin Phoenix would use as the starting points in their own Oscar-nominated (Nicholson) and Oscar-winning (Ledger and Phoenix) performances. As a closeted gay man of Latin American descent, Romero gracefully faced many personal challenges while maintaining his suave public image and starring opposite legends ranging from Shirley Temple to Marlene Dietrich, Carmen Miranda to Frank Sinatra, and Kurt Russell to Jane Wyman.

The first biography of the consummate entertainer, Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild, captures the critical moments of Romero’s childhood, adolescence, and accomplishments in Hollywood. Author Samuel Garza Bernstein shares anecdotes regarding Romero’s public and personal life, as well as Romero’s private disdain for his reputation as the “Latin lover,” a discriminatory stereotype he found constrictive both in terms of his range as an actor and as a man who kept his sexuality private.

Cesar Romero is an in-depth study of a significant Hollywood star and his impact on the entertainment industry. Batman made him immortal, but with more than four hundred film and television credits, his six-decade career as an actor, dancer, and singer made him a true Hollywood icon.

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

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