Lorenzo Lamas

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Lorenzo Lamas
Lamas at the 61st Academy Awards, 1989
Born	Lorenzo y de Santos Lamas January 20, 1958 (1958-01-20) (age 51) Santa Monica, California, USA
Years active	1976 – present
Spouse(s)	Shauna Sand (1996-2002) (divorced) Kathleen Kinmont (1989-1993) (divorced) Michele Smith (1983-1985) (divorced) Victoria Hilbert (1981-1982) (divorced)
Official website

Lorenzo Lamas (born January 20, 1958) is an American actor and reality television participant. Lamas is known for playing Lance Cumson on the popular 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest, Reno Raines on the 1990s crime drama Renegade, and Hector Ramirez on the daytime soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful. Lamas also served as a judge on ABC television's short-lived reality show Are You Hot?. Currently, he now stars in his own reality show, Leave it to Lamas, a series about his real-life family.

Early life

Lamas was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of the late Argentine actor Fernando Lamas and Norwegian-American actress Arlene Dahl and stepson of the swimming film starlet, Esther Williams, who married his father when Lorenzo was 11 years old. He was brought up in Pacific Palisades, California and moved to New York City in 1971, when he was 13 years old. He graduated from the Admiral Farragut Academy in Pine Beach, New Jersey, in 1975. He went back home to Beverly Hills to rejoin his family.

Acting career

Longing to be an actor since the age of five, Lamas first studied acting in Tony Barr's Film Actors Workshop and quickly thereafter obtained his first TV acting role in 1976. He had a supporting role in the 1978 hit movie Grease.

In 1980, he auditioned for and won the role of Jane Wyman's playboy grandson and henchman, Lance Cumson, for the pilot of a new series entitled The Vintage Years. The pilot was later retooled to become the hit prime time drama series Falcon Crest. Lamas was already familiar to Wyman as his father, Fernando Lamas, had guest-starred on Wyman's TV show in 1958. During a 2006 TV interview with Norweigan Television Team, he once said that for him getting the role, he'd auditioned twice and beat out five other guys for the part, which paid off. He also had a wonderful on- and off-screen chemistry with Wyman for all the nine seasons, despite his mentor and series' lead, who was taking a leave of absence from the show in 1989. At that time, he, along with his co-stars David Selby (who frequently played Lamas's on-screen uncle) and Susan Sullivan (who occasionally played Lamas's on-screen great aunt/mother-in-law) had visiting the ailing Wyman at a hospital. During his stint on Falcon Crest, Lamas was nominated for two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Golden Globe. Lamas was the only actor to appear in all 227 episodes of the series. He didn't keep in touch of his mentor, except on September 10, 2007, he received word Wyman died.

In 1984, Lamas was nominated for Worst Actor at the Golden Raspberry Awards for his performance in the movie Body Rock. Lamas also performed a song on the soundtrack for this movie, and the track "Fools Like Me" became his only single to date to crack the Billboard Hot 100 chart.^{[citation needed]}

In 1992, two years after Falcon Crest ended, Lamas played the role of the falsely accused cop Reno Raines in the syndicated series Renegade. The series was seen in over 100 countries^{[citation needed]}, and during its final season, it moved from first-run syndication to the USA Network. The show ended in 1997 after a run of five seasons.

From February 2004 until February 2007 Lamas played the role of Hector Ramirez on the CBS daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.

In August 2007, Lamas starred as the King of Siam in The King and I at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine. That fall, he performed at Kean University Premiere Stages in Union, New Jersey in the title role in Steven Dietz's Dracula. Lamas performed as El Gallo in The Fantasticks at the Casa Mañana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas in June 2008. In June 2009, Lamas returned to the Ogunquit Playhouse as Zach in A Chorus Line.

Lamas began appearing in the Zaxby's restaurant chain television advertisements in May 2008.

In 2008, Lamas appeared in season 2 of CMT's Gone Country.

Lamas now stars as himself in Leave it to Lamas, a reality show that focused on his own real-life family on E!

Personal life

Lamas has been married four times. His first marriage was to Victoria Hilbert from 1981 to 1982. His next marriage was to Michele Smith in 1983, resulting in two children: son A.J. Lamas (born December 19, 1983) and daughter Shayne Lamas (born November 9,1985). He and Smith split in 1985. He married Kathleen Kinmont (daughter of his Falcon Crest co-star Abby Dalton) in 1989; they divorced in 1993. Lamas married his fourth wife, Playmate of the Month Shauna Sand, in 1996. Lamas and Sand have three daughters: Alexandra Lynne Lamas (born November 22, 1997), Victoria Lamas (born April 24, 1999), and Isabella Lorenza Lamas (born February 2, 2001). Lamas and Sand divorced in 2002.

Lamas fathered daughter Paton Lee (born 1988) with actress Daphne Ashbrook. He was engaged to Playmate of the Month Barbara Moore, but the marriage was called off.

Lamas occasionally races automobiles in the IMSA and Skip Barber Formula Dodge Series racing series. In the past, he has driven a Ford Thunderbird in his races. Lamas also holds a commercial pilot's license.

He is a co-chair of several children’s charities, including Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Lamas supported John McCain for President in 2008.^[1]

Lamas has studied karate and taekwondo since 1979;^[2] he has a black belt in the latter.^[3]

He has a motorcycle company called Lorenzo Motorcycles.

His son, A.J. Lamas, continued the family acting tradition and starred as Rafael Ortega on As the World Turns from October 2004 to February 2005, when the role was re-cast.

Filmography

Television work

• California Fever (1979) (canceled after 10 episodes)
• Detour to Terror (1980)
• Secrets of Midland Heights (1980-1981)
• Falcon Crest (1981-1990)
• Dancin' to the Hits (1986-1987)
• Flesh and the Devil (1992)
• Renegade (1992-1997)
• Invasion America (1998) (canceled after 13 episodes) (voice)
• Air America (1998-1999)
• The Immortal (2000-2001)
• Celebrity Boot Camp (2002)
• Are You Hot? (2003) (canceled after 5 episodes)
• The Paradise Virus (2003)
• The Bold and the Beautiful (cast member from 2004-2007)
• Hope Ranch (2004)
• Deep Evil (2004)
• Raptor Island (2004)
• The 1/2 Hour News Hour (2007)
• Gone Country (2008)
• Phineas and Ferb (2009) - Episode, "The Chronicles of Meap" as Meap

References

External links

• Lorenzo Lamas at the Internet Movie Database
• Lorenzo Lamas at Allmovie
• Official site
• Alien 3000 review with clip, screenshots and sounds
• Sci-Fighter review with clips, screenshots and sounds
• Website for Lorenzo's show Renegade
• Lorenzo Lamas profile