GUY WILLIAMS - A SWASHBUCKLING Life

THE NEW YORK-BORN ACTOR MADE A CAREER OUT OF PLAYING HEROES, EXPLORERS AND ADVENTURERS

- Lindsay Hoffman

Over Thanksgiving weekend 1958, scores of fans descended on California's Disneyland to see the stars of the hit TV series Zorro. Wearing his character's trademark black costume, actor Guy Williams smiled for his adoring audience and engaged in a swift fencing duel with another actor.

Guy, who was born Armando Catalano to Italian immigrant parents, spent most of his acting career playing adventurers. In addition to his starring role in TV's Zorro, he is best remembered as Prof. John Robinson, the patriarch on TV's Lost in Space.

Zorro, based on a 1919 pulp fiction tale, tells of Don Diego de la Vega, the son of a California landowner in the 1880s who masquerades as Zorro, a black-caped vigilante who defends the poor and helpless, leaving behind only the letter Z. “Every major actor in Hollywood, including Guy, wanted the part,” Antoinette Lane, author of Guy Williams: The Man Behind the Mask, tells Closer. “He felt this role was meant for him. His physique, his elegance, and his agility fit the description of the character.” Guy even already knew how to fence, thanks to his father's lifelong passion for the sport.

"Zorro was set in California, we didn't call it a Western, but a SouthWestern."
-Guy Williams