Héctor Elizondo

Héctor Elizondo (born December 22, 1936) is a Golden Globe-nominated and Emmy Award-winning American actor.

Early Years
Elizondo was born in New York City, the son of Carmen Medina Reyes from Puerto Rico and Martin Echevarria Elizondo of Basque descent. His parents who moved to New York City, like many other Hispanics at the time, with the hope of finding a better way of life. At a young age, Elizondo demonstrated a talent in sports and music. He sang for the Frank Murray Boys' Choir when he was 10 years old. Upon graduating from Jr. High School in 1951, he enrolled in the High School of the Performing Arts; he also attended a regular public high school where he excelled in basketball and baseball - his baseball skills were good enough for him to be scouted by both the New York Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 1954, Elizondo enrolled in City College of New York, with the intention of becoming a history teacher. During his freshman year he became a father and dropped out of College and went to work full-time in order to support his family. Later, he was divorced and gained full custody of his son, Rodd. He and his wife Carolee Campbell, an Emmy-Award winning actress, photographer and celebrated publisher, live in Sherman Oaks, California.

Career
From 1962–1963, Elizondo studied dance at the Ballet Arts Company at Carnegie Hall and in 1963 he landed parts in two Off-Broadway shows: Kill the One-Eyed Man and The Great White Hope. His first major success came when he played "God" in guise of a Puerto Rican steam room attendant in the play Steambath. Elizondo won an Obie Award for his performance. Many of his roles involve playing a friend or sympathizer to the lead character. He provided the voice of Bane, one of the more aggressively themed characters in Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman.

In the 1980s, Elizondo befriended Garry Marshall; Marshall was impressed with his talent and it was to become a lifelong friendship, which would bring benefits for both. Their first movie together was Young Doctors in Love. In some of the movies in which Elizondo appeared, he went uncredited and he would not have minded staying that way for the movie Pretty Woman, however it was Marshall who insisted on crediting him. His role in Pretty Woman only lasted 10 minutes, but it led to his receiving a Golden Globe nomination. Elizondo has participated in over 80 movies and 12 of them have been Marshall's.

In 2001, he had the role as Renaldi's head of security "Joe" in the movie, The Princess Diaries, and he also starred Joe in the sequel to the movie, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which was made in 2004.

On April 30th, 2008 It was announced by USA Network, that Elizondo will become Adrian Monk's new therapist, Dr. Neven Bell, on their award winning series Monk. Elizondo replaces actor Stanley Kamel who died suddenly on April 8th, 2008.

Filmography
* A Mexican bandit in Valdez is Coming (1971) * A Puerto Rican janitor who, along with his pregnant wife and four others, got stuck on an elevator with Archie Bunker in a 1972 episode of All in the Family * A psychopathic killer in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) * Hassan Salah, a devious First Secretary of the embassy of fictional Arab country Swahari in Columbo: A Case of Immunity (1975) * A dogged detective in The Fan (1981) * A middle-class family man in The Flamingo Kid (1984) * The agent of a struggling stand-up comic in the short-lived television series a.k.a. Pablo (1984) * As Tom Hanks's boss in Nothing In Common (1986) * As Bernard Thompson, manager of the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, in Pretty Woman (1990) * As defense attorney Sandy Stern in The Burden of Proof (1990) * As Dr. Dio Gottlieb, a psychiatrist in Final Approach (1991) * As Coach Ed Gennero in Necessary Roughness (1991) * A Greek coffee shop owner in Frankie and Johnny (1991) * Joe, The head of the queen's security service (and future husband of the Queen) in The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement * Twice in The Rockford Files, Once as former detective Frank Falcone, "Freeze Turkey" and earlier in the series as a Korean War buddy that hires Jim Rockford to find a love interest - he gets killed halfway through that episode. (1973–1980)   * As Chief of Staff Dr. Phillip Watters in Chicago Hope (1994–2000) * As Javier Del Campo in the made-for-tv movie Borrowed Hearts * As Wan Shi Tong on Avatar: The Last Airbender * As Cardinal Sebastian on The Celestine Prophecy * As Detective Jon Flint in Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) * As Bill, the Harvard crew coach, in How High (2001) * Martin Naranjo, the widowed father of the three girls in Tortilla Soup (2001) * As Father Henry Stevens in Without a Trace (2003) * As Izzy in Georgia Rule (2007) * As Ben Padrow in Music Within (2007) * As the dying patriarch, Pancho Duque, of a family-run sugar and rum company in Cane (2007) * As Don Leo in Love in the Time of Cholera based on the Gabriel García Márquez book (2007) * As Adrian Monk's new therapist Dr. Bell in Monk (2008)