Last Man Standing

Season 4 M-Net Sat (*101) 18:30 & 19:00

At 79, actor Hector Elizondo has seen and done it all, which makes playing businessman Ed Alzate on sitcom Last Man Standing (2011-current) a pleasure. And like his young-at-heart character, Hector loves a good laugh: “What do I love about Ed? You never know when there’s going to be frontal nudity…”

Despite a 53-year career, Hector 1

wasn’t going to be an actor. As a teen, he was scouted by American football team the New York Giants and minor league baseball team the Pittsburgh Pirates. He tore ligaments in his knee dancing and was forced to give up sports. So he took up theatre.

He went to the City College Of 2

New York in 1954 and wanted to become a history teacher, but he had to drop out and find work to support his baby son Rodd after his girlfriend at the time abandoned them both.

Hector’s acting jobs started com3

ing in by 1964 but he refused to play stereotypical Mexican druglords and hitmen. “I didn’t become an actor to be pigeon-holed,” he says. “Fortunately, I have a neutral-looking face and can play any nationality.”

His shiny career hid a troubled 4

personal life in the late ’60s when he had to care for his ailing mom and dad Carmen Medina Reyes and Martín Echevarría, who both suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. “I was taking care of my father, who was taking care of my mother. I watched him start to sink, so I started to give him more attention.” They passed away in the mid-’70s.

That suffering helped him perfect 5

his “sad man” roles, like Dr Phillip Watters in medical drama Chicago Hope (1994-2000). And while he loves playing upbeat Ed, Hector adds, “I’m attracted to pathos, I’ve had a lot of it.”