Pedro Armendariz

Brand-new Jew

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Like his father before him, Pedro Armendariz Jr. is a beloved movie actor. Since his debut in 1966 in Fuera de la ley (Outside the Law), he has appeared in about 200 flicks, playing private eyes and police detectives, soldiers and priests, sea captains and state governors and even Pancho Villa himself. He has acted in U.S.-financed extravaganzas filmed in Mexico such as The Legend of Zorro, Once Upon a Time in America and License to Kill. Yet in recent years, he has converted to Judaism – at least on the Mexico City stage, where he appeared in back-to-back long runs as Tevye the dairyman in Fiddler on the Roof, and Max Bialystock in The Producers. Here he is on a recent afternoon, savoring a coffee after a non-kosher lunch at the restaurant Primos in the Colonia Condesa.