Nestor Paiva was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor of Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

 descent who portrayed the innkeeper on Walt Disney

Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

's live-action television series Zorro by ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 and its feature film The Sign of Zorro which was shot in Burbank's Walt Disney Studios

Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)

The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, United States, serve as the international headquarters for media conglomerate The Walt Disney Company. The Walt Disney Studio's house offices for each of the company's divisions along with creative spaces designed for movie production. The Walt Disney...

.

Career

Nestor appeared in motion pictures and television shows from the 1930s to the 1960s such as Get Smart

Get Smart

Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

, Bonanza

Bonanza

Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...

, I Spy, Family Affair

Family Affair

Family Affair is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966 to September 9, 1971. The series explored the trials of well-to-do civil engineer and bachelor Bill Davis as he attempted to raise his brother's orphaned children in his luxury New York City apartment. Davis' traditional...

, Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, Perry Mason

Perry Mason (TV series)

Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...

, Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone (TV series)

Daniel Boone is an American action/adventure television series starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone that aired from September 24, 1964 to September 10, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone's Native American friend, for the...

, The Beverly Hillbillies

The Beverly Hillbillies

The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....

, and The Addams Family

The Addams Family (TV series)

The Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...

. In 1943, he played the Italian Major in the 20th Century Fox wartime movie Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas

Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas

Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas was a major war film made by Twentieth Century Fox in 1943. The film starred Philip Dorn, Anna Sten, and Martin Kosleck. The movie, originally titled The Seventh Column, was directed by Louis King based on a story by Jack Andrews, who also co-wrote the screenplay....

. He played the part of Lucas (the boat captain) in the 1954 horror film The Creature from the Black Lagoon starring Ben Chapman

Ben Chapman (actor)

Benjamin F. Chapman, Jr. was an American actor best known as playing the Gill-man on land in the 1954 horror film Creature from the Black Lagoon...

 as the title monster; Paiva would reprise this role in that film's sequel Revenge of the Creature

Revenge of the Creature

Revenge of the Creature is the first sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon. The film is notable for being the only 3-D film to be released in 1955; the only 3-D sequel to a 3-D film; and for being the first screen role for Clint Eastwood. The movie was released May 11, 1955, in the United States...

the following year. He appeared in more than 250 movies. Paiva married in 1941 and had two children, Joseph and Caetana, who appeared with him in the 1956 movie Comanche with Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...

.

Paiva died of cancer in 1966. He is buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery

Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...

.

Selected filmography

• Dark Streets of Cairo
  Dark Streets of Cairo
  Dark Streets of Cario is a 1940 American mystery film directed by László Kardos and starring Sigrid Gurie, Ralph Byrd, Eddie Quillan, George Zucco and Katherine DeMille.-Cast:* Sigrid Gurie - Ellen Stephens* Ralph Byrd - Dennis Martin...
  
  (1940)
• Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas
  Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas
  Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas was a major war film made by Twentieth Century Fox in 1943. The film starred Philip Dorn, Anna Sten, and Martin Kosleck. The movie, originally titled The Seventh Column, was directed by Louis King based on a story by Jack Andrews, who also co-wrote the screenplay....
  
   (1943)
• The Great Caruso
  The Great Caruso
  The Great Caruso is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer from a screenplay by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig. The original music was by Johnny Green and the cinematography by...
  
  (1951)
• Tarantula
  Tarantula
  Tarantulas comprise a group of often hairy and often very large arachnids belonging to the family Theraphosidae, of which approximately 900 species have been identified. Some members of the same Suborder may also be called "tarantulas" in the common parlance. This article will restrict itself to...
  
  (1955) Sheriff of Desert Rock
• Girls! Girls! Girls!
  Girls! Girls! Girls!
  Girls! Girls! Girls! is a 1962 musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley as a penniless Hawaiian fisherman who loves his life on the sea and dreams of owning his own boat. "Return to Sender", which reached #2 on the Billboard pop singles chart, is featured in the movie...
  
   (1962)

Selected television appearances

• I Spy (1966)
• The Addams Family (1966)
• Get Smart (1965)
• Burke's Law (1965) (TV series)
• Gunsmoke (1965)
• Daniel Boone (1965)

External links