Comedian Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez dies, 80

Ebullient Mexican-American comedic actor Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, who voiced several 1960s Speedy Gonzales cartoons from DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, died February 6 at 80.

He died of natural causes at his Culver City, California home, his grandson, actor Clifton Collins Jr., told the Los Angeles Times. Funeral services were held Friday morning at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Culver City.

A Texas native, Gonzalez Gonzalez appeared in dozens of movies, including The High and the Mighty and Rio Bravo. He frequently was the "comic relief" in Westerns, playing a Mexican in a service job, such as a barber or bartender.

Billed as "Gonzales Gonzales," he voiced Speedy Gonzales in Mucho Locos(1966),Speedy and Loco Crow in Chili Corn Corny(1965), and portrayed Speedy and Dr. Ben Crazy in Daffy Rents (1966). Gonzalez Gonzalez doubled as Speedy and the Mexican Psychiatrist in A Taste Of Catnip(1966). He was also in the voice cast of Go Go Amigo (1965).

In various incarnations of the live-action TV series Disneyland, he portrayed Bandido (as Pedro Gonzales) in The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1971) and the Mexican Driver (as Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez) in The Love Bug (1979). He was also featured in the EPCOT Mexico ride at Disney World.

Born Ramiro Gonzalez Gonzalez on May 24, 1925, Aguilares, Texas, he was one of nine children of Spanish dancer from Mexico and a Mexican-American trumpet player from Texas. He was given his father's last name and his mother's maiden name in keeping with Mexican tradition; the two names happened to be the same. Friends would nickname him Pedro.

The diminutive Gonzalez Gonzalez came to fame in 1953, when quizmaster Groucho Marx had him as a guest on You Bet Your Life. Gonzalez Gonzalez stole the show, singing part of "El Rancho Grande," showing off comedic dance skills and mugging wildly for the camera.

"Pedro, we could do a great act together," suggested Marx. "What would we call our act if we went out together, the Two Tamales?" he asked. Deadpanned Gonzalez Gonzalez: "No, it would be Gonzalez Gonzalez and Marx."

"That's nice billing. Two people in the act, and I get third place!" Marx lamented to audience laughter.

With very little schooling, Gonzalez Gonzalez was functionally illiterate for much of his life. When he was 7, his parents took him out of school to join the family in entertaining migrant workers and small-town residents in the American Southwest.

He became the comedic star of the family, using mallets to play picket-truck hubcaps that were sewn into concealed pants-leg pockets. He sang, danced, and played frying pans and water-filled bottles in the style of a xylophone.

"It was more fun to watch him tune up than anything else. He wasn't the greatest singer in the world, but he was such a character, everybody loved him. He was a tremendous entertainer, said Rex Allen Jr., son of the singing cowboy, who played at 1980s county and state fairs in Nebraska and Iowa with Gonzalez Gonzalez.

During the Second World War, Gonzalez Gonzalez was a driver in the United States Army, stationed stateside.

Although he began by performing comedy in Spanish, he learned English and found that he was more successful in that language. "I never learned to speak English too good, but the audience liked it like that," he told the Arizona Range News in 1998.

After John Wayne spotted Gonzalez Gonzalez with Groucho, he signed him to a seven-year contract with his production company.

One of the few recognizable Mexican-Americans on the big and little screens at teh time, he appeared in such Wayne films as McLintock!, Hellfighters and Chisum.

He was in such other films as Strange Lady in Town, The Sheepman, Support Your Local Gunfighter and The Love Bug. Gonzalez Gonzalex also guested on the TV shows Wanted: Dead or Alive, Gunsmoke, The DuPont Show With June Allyson and Burke's Law.

In later years, Gonzalez Gonzalez was slammed for being what one critic called the "Uncle Tom of Latino actors."

However, said Collins, "he just always wanted to work. He played the roles that were available to him, and he did them well."

Gonzalez Gonzalez "inspired every Latino actor," said actor Edward James Olmos, who spoke at the actor's funeral Friday.

"The guy was a tremendous personality. He just really had a contagiousness about making people happy," he told the Times.

"He tried like crazy to make us understand the importance of educating our minds," Olmos added, noting that Gonzalez Gonzalez lacked formal education.

In 1990, a few years after he began acting, Collins changed his professional name to Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez in honor of his grandfather. "I grew a little tired of people not knowing who my grandpa was and what a trailblazer he was," said Collins, who went back to his last name in 2000 after his father died.

When he grew up, Collins heard his grandfather's memories of guest-starring with actor Robert Mitchum in 1956 on Jimmy Durante's live TV comedy-variety show. Gonzalez Gonzalez played the musical frying pans and hubcaps and sang and danced with Durante and Mitchum.

Collins got a videotape of the show about a month ago and played it for his grandparents in the living room of their Culver City home.

"It was grandpa at his best, at the top of his game. It was such a great joy for me as a grandson to see him watch that show for the first time. He just beamed from ear to ear."

Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez is survived by his wife of 62 years, Leandra; son Ramiro; daughters Yolanda and Rosie; seven grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and brother Jose Gonzales-Gonzales, also an actor.