He’s been called “Santa Barbara’s favorite adopted son,” and with his upbeat, magnetic personality he could “stand on a corner and attract a crowd.”
He often took part in the Old Spanish Days Fiesta Historical Parade (El Desfile Histórico), riding a horse and waving grandly to the people lined up along State Street.
He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he appeared in more than 90 movies in a career that began during the silent era and continued until 1950.
Among the stars with whom he appeared were Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, Fay Wray, Ida Lupino and Henry Fonda.
In television’s early days he starred as Pancho in a series called The Cisco Kid.
But while he is best known for his acting, there was much more to Leo Carrillo, truly a man for all seasons.
He was a vaudevillian, an artist (he drew political cartoons for the San Francisco Examiner), and a stage actor, appearing in nine plays on Broadway between 1915 and 1927.
He was also a dedicated conservationist, determined to preserve California’s Spanish and Mexican heritage for future generations to appreciate.
He left his imprint throughout the state. There is Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park in Carlsbad, Leo Carrillo State Park and Beach in Malibu, Leo Carrillo Elementary School in Westminster and, of course, Carrillo Street in Santa Barbara.
The late Sen. Thomas Kuchel, R-Calif., referred to him as “one of California’s greatest citizens,” and to Gov. Pat Brown he was simply “Mr. California.” He titled his 1961 memoir The California I Love.
Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo was born Aug. 6, 1880, in Los Angeles (although he referred to Santa Barbara as his “ancestral home) in an adobe building east of Plaza de Los Ángeles.
“The adobe is my birthstone,” Carrillo wrote, seeing in the adobe a symbol of his deep roots in the Golden State.
He was a sixth-generation Californio. His family traced its lineage to medieval Castile in Spain, with generations that included soldiers, churchmen, nobles and explorers.
Family tradition held that two early Carrillos were so devoted to the church that they earned the nickname “los carillons de la iglesia,” from which the family name was said to have evolved.
Alonzo Carrillo was archbishop of Toledo and helped arrange the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille in 1469. Marquis Luis de Benavides Carrillo was governor of the Hapsburg Netherlands in 1659.
Carrillo’s great-grandfather, José Raimundo Carrillo, was a soldier in the Portolá Expedition of 1769, the first time California was explored by land. His great uncle, Capt. José Antonio Carrillo, was mayor of Los Angeles in 1826, 1828 and 1833.
His great aunt, Maria Josefa Carrillo, married American William Goodwin Dana in 1828, the founder of the Dana Adobe in Nipomo. Leo’s father was police chief of Santa Monica and, later, its mayor.
“I am a Californio,” Carrillo wrote in The California I Love, proud of the legacy he was determined to safeguard.
He spent 18 years serving on California’s Beach and Parks Commission, fighting to save the reminders of the state’s past for generations to come. Among these are the Hill-Carrillo Adobe in Santa Barbara, now home to the Hutton Parker Foundation; the Pico House in Los Angeles; and Hearst Castle in San Simeon.
The Cisco Kid, which ran from 1950 to 1956 with 156 episodes, is a show many baby boomers will remember. It even inspired the 1972 song by War, “The Cisco Kid.”
Despite the fact that the program had ceased production 16 years before the song debuted, it was still popular in reruns. (Fun fact: The Cisco Kid character was created by O. Henry in a 1907 short story called “The Caballeros Way.”)
One of the last great public chapters in Carrillo’s life came in 1960 when he represented the United States on an ambitious goodwill mission to Latin America.
The purpose of this 20,000-mile trek was to encourage participation by Hispanic countries in the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.
He met with government officials and civic leaders, attended receptions, took part in parades and other ceremonies, all with the intention of improving relations between the United States and its neighbors to the South.
This junket was all the more remarkable because only the year before, in 1959, Carrillo underwent major surgery after collapsing during a trip to welcome South American athletes to the Pan-American Games in Chicago.
Some feared he might not recover. But recover he did, and he not only went on the goodwill tour but he also rode in the 1961 Tournament of Roses Parade astride his beloved palomino Conquistador, and finished his book, The California I Love.
He died on Sept. 10, 1961.
Leo Carrillo, Mr. California, Santa Barbara’s favorite adopted son, and California’s man for all seasons.