Don Sebastian Explained

Don Sebastian
Image Size:100px
Birth Name:Luis Héctor Monge-Tamayo
Birth Date:June 28, 1911
Birth Place:Ures, Sonora, Mexico
Death Date:November 30, 1987
Death Place:Los Angeles, California
Occupation:Professional wrestler, actor
Spouse:

Don Louis Sebastian (born Luis Héctor Monge-Tamayo, and sometimes billed as Don Carlos Sebastian or Don Juan Sebastian) was a professional wrestler, a wrestling promoter, a movie actor, and the fourth husband of B-movie heroine Lynne Roberts. A native of Mexico, he later immigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen.[1]

Origins

Sebastian was born in Ures, Sonora, Mexico, in 1911. In contemporaneous newspaper reports, he was said to have attended high school in Nogales, Arizona.[2] He told reporters he had worked as a bullfighter in Mexico City before becoming a wrestler. He was also praised for his impressive skills as a typist.

Career

By the late 1930s, Don Sebastian—billed as a "Basque wrestler," a "Portuguese-Spanish wrestler," and a "refugee from the Spanish wars"—was wrestling in Mexico and the United States.[3] [4] He actually got his start as a masked luchador in Mexico City.[5]

In the 1940s, he promoted wrestling in Santa Barbara County, California, where he resided at the time.[6] In the 1950s, he leased a space in San Bernardino, California, where he hosted wrestling events and amateur boxing.[7]

He was playing bit parts in films by the 1940s and performing as a singer around the Los Angeles area; he later played bigger film roles in the 1970s and 1980s.[8] He reportedly worked as a stuntman double for Erroll Flynn in the 1930s and 1940s as well.[9]

Personal life

Don Sebastian married Blanche Cordell in 1949 in Ventura, California; they divorced in 1958. He married Lois Brooks in 1965 in Los Angeles. He married Lynne Roberts in 1971, but was legally separated from her at the time of her death.[10]

He died in Los Angeles in 1987 and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.

Selected filmography

References

  1. Web site: Sebastian to Return for Tourney Here. 25 Oct 1940. The Evening Herald. en. 2019-12-01.
  2. Web site: Wrestler-Typist. 16 Apr 1940. The Evening Herald. en. 2019-12-01.
  3. Web site: Basque Wrestler on Display. 27 Apr 1939. Deseret News. en. 2019-12-01.
  4. Web site: Don Sebastian to Show Here. 23 Sep 1940. The Honolulu Advertiser. en. 2019-12-01.
  5. Web site: Masked Wrestlers Headline Mat Card. 30 Nov 1938. Visalia Times-Delta. en. 2019-12-01.
  6. Web site: Sebastian Takes Over Wrestling at Pismo Beach. 4 Jun 1948. The Santa Maria Times. en. 2019-12-01.
  7. Web site: Wrestling Returns to S.B. Saturday. 28 Feb 1954. The San Bernardino County Sun. en. 2019-12-01.
  8. Web site: Wrestler-Typist. 6 Apr 1940. The Evening Herald. en. 2019-12-01.
  9. Web site: Mexican Adonis Meets Chick in Monday Grapple. 22 Mar 1940. Medford Mail Tribune. en. 2019-12-01.
  10. Everett Aaker. Encyclopedia of early television crime fighters. McFarland 2006 Page 479