Mexican actor Ramón Novarro was BOTD in 1899. Born José Ramón Gil Samaniego in Durango City, his family moved to Los Angeles in 1913 to escape the Mexican Revolution. He began his film career in 1917 playing bit parts, while working as a singing waiter and dancer. His big break came in 1923 as the lead in the silent film Scaramouche, playing a swashbuckling hero. He caused a sensation in 1925’s Ben-Hur, with barely-there costumes that displayed his impressive physique. His good looks and charismatic screen presence quickly drew comparisons with Rudolph Valentino, and he became Hollywood’s first Latino leading man, starring in romantic dramas The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg and Across to Singapore. He transitioned smoothly to talking films, appearing with Greta Garbo in Mata Hari, but his studio declined to renew his contract in 1935. He acted sporadically in films and television in the 1940s and 1950s, living comfortably in his Hollywood Hills mansion. Pressured by the studio to keep his homosexuality a secret, he had clandestine relationships with Harry Partch, Herbert Howe and Noël Sullivan. He was murdered in 1968 by two rent boys, who assaulted and tortured him for hours to reveal the whereabouts of a (non-existent) money stash, eventually leaving him to choke to death on his own blood. He was 69.