Lorenzo
Lamas (born Lorenzo y de Santos Lamas on January 20, 1958 in Santa
Monica, California) is an American television and film actor, television
personality and martial artist, primarily on soap operas, movies and
television, playing mostly bad guy roles. He is best-known for playing
the roles of Jane Wyman's young irresponsible grandson, Lance Cumson, on
the popular 1980s soap opera, Falcon Crest, the falsely accused cop,
Reno Raines, the main character on the popular 1990s crime drama,
Renegade, and as firefighter, Hector Ramirez, on The Bold and The
Beautiful. He also served as judge on Are You Hot?.
Lamas is the son of the late Argentine actor
Fernando Lamas and actress Arlene Dahl. He was brought up in Pacific
Palisades, California and moved to New York City when he was 13 years
old, around 1971. He graduated from the Admiral Farragut Academy in 1975
and then returned to Southern California. Lamas grew to the height of
1.85 m (6 ft 2 in) tall.
A moment in Lamas's life which has since become famous is when he
approached his mother as a child and told her, "Mother, I want to be a
star..." Then he corrected himself, "...I mean, an actor." She smiled at
him and said, "I heard you the first time."
He studied in Tony Barr's Film Actors
Workshop. His first TV acting role was in 1976. Lamas is an accomplished
martial artist, having studied karate and taekwondo since 1979 and
acquired a number of black belts. In 1978's Grease, he played the "dumb
jock" that Sandy goes to a dance with to make John Travolta's character,
Danny, jealous.
In 1981, he auditioned and won the role as Angela Channing's playboy
grandson and henchman, Lance Cumson, on the hit prime time soap, Falcon
Crest. He had an unusual connection to series matriarch Jane Wyman,
having been a 3 month old infant at the time his father, Fernando Lamas,
guest-starred on Wyman's dramatic show 23 years prior. During his Falcon
Crest days, as a young adult, Lamas actually had a lot of interaction
with Wyman, prior to his popularity. In later years, he was also her
caregiver at the time Wyman was taking ill, and went to see her in the
hospital in 1989. That same year, he received much of his screen-time in
the ninth and final season, despite his co-star's medical leave from the
show. Lorenzo Lamas was nominated for two Soap Opera Digest Awards in
1986 and a Golden Globe a few years after, but took no trophies. An item
of trivia from Falcon Crest is that Lamas was the only actor to appear
in all 227 episodes.
In 1984, he was nominated for worst actor in the Golden Raspberry Awards
for the movie Body Rock.
Lamas's popularity climbed in the late 1980s, 1990s & 2000s, when he
starred in dozens of action movies, playing mostly of corruptive and
unpleasant roles, but was never nominated for an Oscar compared to his
Falcon Crest predecessor, Jane Wyman, who starred in dozens of movies of
the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1992, two years after Falcon Crest had ended, Lamas played the role
of the falsely accused cop Reno Raines in the syndicated series,
Renegade. The show was an instant success, where it was seen in over 100
countries, and during the final season, it moved from first-run
syndication to USA Network, and ratings were still increasing. The show
ended in 1997 after a run of five seasons.
From February 2004 until February 2007 Lamas played the role of Hector
Ramirez on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.
His son, A.J. Lamas, continuing the family acting tradition, starred as
Rafael Ortega on As the World Turns from October 2004 to February 2005,
when the role was recast.