ARNALDO SANTANA (AKA MALO) IS HE SILL ALIVE

Wow - I never knew he had done gay porn! Looks like his career ended in 1984. Makes me wonder if he's still alive.

Looks like packed on quite a few pounds after his gay porn days:

Could this be the same Arnaldo Santana? The date of birth would be consistent:

I still wondered how Arnaldo SANTANA could have plumbed such depths.....He was so stunning, hot and perfect when he played "Cruising" , what a disaster! (R3) I've read he was born on 1961 but It's very weird because it means he was only 17 and 18 years old when he played in porn movies ( in 1977/1978)???? How is it possible to play in gay porn when you are so young and minor ???

I don't think he was born in 1961. Here he is in 1978's "A Night at the Adonis" (the shirtless guy). If he had been born in 1961, that would have made him 17. No way. He had to have been in his mid-20s when this movie was made.

In my seventh grade English class, we had to bring in examples of Greek gods in contemporary culture and I brought in a small ad for the Adonis theater from the New York Times. I was clueless but my teacher had a sort of hidden smile there.

Seeing him tweak his own nipples in Cruising changed my young gay mind forever. I'd never seen a guy like him do anything gay before. He was so sexy.

According to the Bijou Theater website, Arnaldo and Malo are the same guys. He became friends with Al Pacino...I wonder if it happened during or before "Cruising?" He turned to other outlets besides porn, and he became kinda hefty...god, he was gorgeous in those 70s porn films...

Arnaldo Santana was in one Broadway play in 1980 - the quick flops "Goodbye Fidel" with Jane Alexander. He played the "Corporal" and understudied three other roles. Here is his bio: "Arnaldo Santana (Corporal) came from Mexico, attended the University of Texas, received a scholarship to the American Conservatory Theatre and later worked at the San Diego Shakespeare Festival. In New York he as played Hamlet and was Enobarbus in Estelle Parsons' production of "Antony and Cleopatra". Recently he appeared in Kevin Conway's "Mecca" and is featured in the film "Cruising".

The Off-Broadway database shows his appearance in "Mecca" but also in November 1985 that he appeared in a revival of "Short Eyes" by Miguel Pinero with an amazing cast of future stars: Laurence Fishburne, Ving Rhames, Esai Morales and Michael O'Keefe. Kevin Conway directed that.

So it looks like he was a legit actor who was dabbling in porn.

No link to his porn scenes?

By the way, he evidently was a good actor. This is the New York Times review of his Enobarbus in a multi-lingual 1979 production of "Antony and Cleopatra" directed by Estelle Parsons: "Arnoldo Santana's Enobarbus was equally fine as the cynical, objective friend of Antony who sees things too clearly for his own good."

And here he is in "A Night at the Adonis" as you requested R10

Here is his death scene in "Cruising" (1980):

But where is he today?????

Dead.

When did he die and what was the cause ???

(R14) You have wasted my day.....It's so sad and, honestly, he was the real "treasure" of CRUISING.

he died of Aids in the 90s

Was he 100% gay or did he, sometimes, date women ?

Do all his friends (or boyfriends) are long dead ? (except AL PACINO of course...).

Does anyone know what was his character ( as a human being ) ?

Most of the guys, called gay porn actors, are straight in real life. They are gay for pay porn actors ; They often are married with children so when I saw Arnaldo Santana playing in CRUISING and SCARFACE, I thought : "well, he played in porn movies for the money but he must be straight in life".....Now, I think I was wrong, isn't it ?

Do you have verification of this, R17?

[quote] Most of the guys, called gay porn actors, are straight in real life.

What utter bullshit.

Recently, I've read he was alive and it was mentioned it "fact check"....Nothing more. Impossible to know what he became, even IMDB doesn't mentioned his death !

He doesn't show his dick at all in that clip above. Any clips where he's fully nude with dick showing?

Please, we are talking about an actor who is probably dead and would like to know a little more about his personality. If you want to see his dick, you can go on the web and see his porn movies, no ?

I hate that troll who wants to make every gay man into a bisexual.

He masturbates thinking about gay men converting to straight.

(R27) because you knew him ? you were friends ??????

OP a note: I check on LEXIS and didn't find anything concrete on this guy. There are a number of people in Puerto Rico, Texas, NYC and Florida with that name. Several aren't in the right age range - born circa 1951. I didn't find death records that matched either. Kevin Conway directed him in two plays in NY including his last acting credit in 1985 - Conway has a website and might kept track of him - I would contact him. Frankly, given the fact that he publicly drops off the face of the earth after 1985, I suspect that he was another AIDS victim. Like Loren Lukas in "Cruising", Santana was in the wrong place at the wrong time and probably had a date with a killer.

All three of his porn movies for In Hand films are available on DVD from Bijou Video.

Frankly OP, alive or dead, Arnaldo Santana would no longer be the young man you adored from "A Night at the Adonis", "Dune Buddies" or "Cruising". By 1985 his looks had dramatically changed. I would imagine the ensuing 33 years (if he survived the eighties) would have made him unrecognizable today from the striking looking, well built seventies hunk you adored.

R29 I don't think those who are curious about Arnaldo have any expectation that he looks like the Arnaldo from his "Cruising" days. If he's still alive, he's at least in his mid-60s, and we already know he had ditched the hot bod by the late 1980s.

I just find his story intriguing - one of those extremely rare actors who was able to cross over from porn into the mainstream and have a steady career for a while. And then poof! He completely disappears.

I am 65 and I have little doubt that if he's alive he is older than me.

(R29) Thank you very much fo sharing your knowledge. We await with great interest your posts. I really appreciate you Rona Bearette.

(R23) Well, Jack Wrangler (gay porn actor who played with Arnaldo Santana) was married and had a child. Do you still think it's a "utter bullshit" ?

Jack Wrangler was not straight and did not have a child. Yes, he was married to Margaret Whiting, but he was openly gay with her and she knew it. Watch his documentary to learn about his life:

I think Al PACINO must know what happened to Arnaldo SANTANA...

......But no one has known him personally ??? If everybody is dead, it's sinister.....

Thank you R32 for your lovely words of appreciation. I think this might be a case for the Rialto Report people: Arnaldo was part of the "Golden Age of Porn" and they don't discriminate against gay, bi and crossover performers. They did a wonderful article on the bizarre filming of "Centurions of Rome" which was funded by money from the Brinks robbery. Their work and contacts on the article about that film might lead to something about "Malo".

R37 You should e-mail Ashley and April and ask them about doing a story on Arnaldo. They're very responsive and they'd probably be thrilled to have another subject to research.

They did an amazing story on Dolly Sharp (who played Linda Lovelace's friend in "Deep Throat") and uncovered some incredible stuff about her life.

Arnaldo Santana is or was an "imperfect god" and the only answer we have is : don't believe rumors or hoaxes because he is still alive!!!!!!!???????????

Spokeo has a listing for an Arnaldo Santana who's 63 years old and lives in Miami. Based on the age, that would fit. That would've made him about 25 when he appeared in "Cruising." Spokeo doesn't show him as being deceased.

The address listed for him on Spokeo is a nice apartment building on Collins Avenue right on the beach. So if this is the Arnaldo Santana we're thinking of, he seems to be doing fine.

(R40) Sorry, but this man, this Arnaldo Santana, died in 2009. We still don't know if he was, or not, the actor mentioned in this thread. It's a big mystery to me...

Arnaldo SANTANA had everything : beauty, talent (theatre and movies), brain etc...so were, and why, did it all go wrong???

He also had beautiful, big nipples.

A.SANTANA is the most mysterious "case" in the film industry.......

Did he make a living by playing in porn movies and that's why some say Arnaldo Santana was straight in real life ????

I don't know if he died in the 90's, but if it's true, I think he would have gotten married with a woman and would have had children (in the case he hadn't died), because most of gay men end up with women. Yet, he played in A.K.A PABLO, the character of Hector Del Gato a married man with children.... A majority of Gay Men, and not only in the film industry, could have lived their life as open gay men but they rather like playing "the husband and dad" since those in the know are well aware of their preferences.

I eat shit.

(R47) = ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I've been told A.Santana wasn't gay in real life.....

R8 there's a bijou theater website?

What I find incredibly odd, that in this age of sharing ever, no men or women come forward and discussed having an affair or hookup with Arnaldo SANTANA. It's very intriguing, especially on DL.

On another hand, you have DL's obsession and knowledge about those nobodies....

Honestly, regarding his porn past, I don't think A.SANTANA was straight. But who knows ?!

Mystery solved. He died in NYC on October 8, 1987. Given his age and the times, probably of AIDS. But given the amount of weight he gained in a short amount of time earlier in the 80s, who knows. He was from El Paso, Texas (born Luis Arnaldo Sanchez) originally. Here is the obituary from the El Paso Times, via newspapers.com. He acted locally in Texas in the early 70s as Arnaldo Sanchez Zuniga (his mothers surname).

In 1969, while he attended The University of Texas at Austin.

Whoops. Excuse the typo above. His full name was Luis Arnaldo Santana.

Arnaldo with a young Mario Lopez (in her first acting job) on the short-lived tv show A.k.a Pablo.

I wonder if the weight gain was on purpose to get more parts as a character actor. He did start getting even more work after that.

Plus I'm sure no one would recognize him from the time he was a hunk in gay porn and even in Cruising.

Here he is another shot from A.k.a Pablo with DL icon Bea Arthur and the rest of the shows cast.

Thank you again (R53) until (R57), like in the Report Rialto thread, for your competence.

Unfortunately, I think we can say "Thread closed"..........