Cast and Characters

I'm going to update this soon with some information I got in an old Mexican TV Guide type magazine, but here's what I managed to retrieve from the Ivory Bastards' now-deleted Wikipedia entry:

Most of the cast is comprised of unknowns, whose names have been lost to history, but some notable cast members included:

	This is reportedly a photo of Gerry Fletcher on the set of Once Upon a Flagpole (1970). He would have been 35 years oid at the time.

Gerry Fletcher (alias Rardo Marcus, Jimmy Waxhaw) as Fango Electrico: (born 1935, Lynchburg, Virginia, USA) Fletcher was a middleweight boxer in the early 1960s, and was a fixture of the underground fighting circuit in the southeastern United States. Fletcher retired from fighting in 1968 after suffering a ruptured spleen during a fight in Talahassee, Florida. Soon after, he starred in several b-movies directed by Florida slasher-film auteur David Allen Gordon. Fletcher's most visible role was in Gordon's 1970 film Bloody, Bloody Nightmare (aka The Gore Merchants), which is now considered a cult classic. In 1971, Gordon was murdered after a dispute with members of the Dixie Mafia, who bankrolled most of his films. Fletcher fled to Mexico City, and became a bit player in several film and TV productions, most often playing the "heavy". His role as Fango Electrico in the Ivory Bastards is his only known starring role.

	There are no known photos of El Cojo Mente sans mask. Reportedly though, he "pulled a Santo" on live TV once, flashing his real face for an instant in 1978.

El Cojo Mente (Renaldo de la Bonte) "as himself": (1940-1993) De la Bonte was a journeyman luchador of some renown in the early seventies under the name El Cojo Mente. He wrestled mostly in the Mexico City area, and starred in at least four lucha libre films as a supporting player. His role in Ivory Bastards is emblematic of the personality de la Bonte potrayed in films and inside the ring. He was unmasked in 1983, and "willed" his mask to El Hijo del Cojo Mente, who continues to wrestle to this day. After the decline of his wrestling career, de la Bonte descended into a life of drug addiction and crime. In 1993, he was found murdered and dismembered in a Mexico City slum.

	I apologize for the quality of this photo. It was taken at the opening of Teatro Dramático in 1980. Quintas is seen in the background of a "red carpet" photo of Ricardo Montalban.

Hermano Quintas as Cancera: (born 1938) Quntas was a trained Shakespearean actor whose film career is limited to three known roles. He studied with Yves Conneor's legendary New York Drama Academy (NYDA) and was considered one of the most promising actors of his generation. However, Quintas shunned a career on Broadway or Hollywood, and instead returned to his native Mexico, where his talents went largely ignored. He was a founding member of Mexico City's Teatro Dramático, and continues to star in and direct in dozens of productions each year. His few film roles are considered a footnote to his long and accomplished career on the stage.

	Hernandez accepting his TVyNovelas award for his performance in Spit and Rinse (1984)

Dr Jorge Hernandez as Dr Head: (19??-2002) For unknown reasons, Director Victor Luis Chavez insisted on casting a real doctor in the role of Dr Head, and awarded the role to his dentist, a middle-aged family man with no acting or wrestling experience. Despite his lack of experience, Dr Hernandez enjoyed rave reviews of his performance as the troubled Dr Head, so much so that Hernandez gave up his practice to pursue a career in television acting. After the end of Ivory Bastards run, Hernandez starred in several well-known telenovellas, including El sol es demasiado caliente (The Sun Is Too Hot), 1979 Escupida y aclaración (Spit and Rinse), 1984, ironically playing a murderous dentist in the later.