BIOGRAPHY:

Veteran character actor Nestor Paiva had one of those indescript ethnic mugs and a natural gift for dialects that allowed him to play practically any type of foreigner. Born in Fresno, California, he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and developed an interest in performing while hooking up with college theatrics. Making his debut in a production of "Antigone," he played in a Los Angeles production of "The Drunkard" for 11 years, finally leaving the show as his workload grew in number and importance in the mid-40s. In hundreds of film (from 1938) and TV roles, and in an overall career that spanned 40 years, the bald, dark and bulky Paiva played everything from Spaniards, Greeks, Russians and Portuguese to Italians, Indians, Arabs and even African-Americans (the latter on radio). Some were shifty, others excitable, many quite hilarious...and most of them undeservingly small. He died in 1966.

TRIVIA:

Parents Francisco Caetano Paiva and Marianna Luiza Freitas were Portuguese immigrants. Nestor was the tenth of twelve children -- half of them dying in infancy. His parents owned a grocery store in Fresno.
Took a job at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank during the WWII effort.
His wife Maxine was once 'Howard Hughes (I)' (qv)' secretary. They married in 1941 and had two children: Joseph Caetano (born 1944) and Caetana Yvette (born 1947).
Initially planned on becoming a teacher and enrolled at the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit institution.
In 1965 he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and, despite extensive surgery that led to the removal most of his stomach, his condition deteriorated and he died the following year.
Father of 'Caetana Paiva' (qv) and 'Joseph Paiva' (qv).

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