The Sass of Kahn: Remembering Ricardo Montalban

January 16, 2009 at 1:22 am PT

BoomTown’s favorite space villain, as well as an alum of two of the “Planet of the Apes” sci-fi movies, Ricardo Montalban, died earlier this week in Los Angeles. He was 88 years old.

While he was also a movie star and helmed the always bizarre 1970s television show, “Fantasy Island,” those who love some serious scenery-chewing will never forget Montalban’s turn as the insane Khan Noonien Singh in the second “Star Trek” movie, “The Wrath of Khan.”

The fabulous movie was based on a famous episode of the “Star Trek” television series, “Space Seed,” about a race of super-men lost in space and found by the crew of the Enterprise.

While Montalban’s over-the-top performance is extreme in both cases, it is pure sci-fi genius too.

So, here is a great Internet video mashup of from “Khan,” with the terrific “From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee…” line, as well as a preview of “Space Seed.”

(And, I could not resist throwing Montalban’s classic commercial for the Chrysler Cordoba and his wonderfully languid way of saying “soft Corinthian leather.”)

The Wrath of Khan:

Space Seed:

Chrysler Cordoba:

Tagged with: Chrysler Cordoba, digital, Internet, Kara Swisher, Khan Noonien Singh, movie, Planet of the Apes, Ricardo Montalban, sci-fi, soft Corinthian leather, space, Space Seed, Star Trek, television, The Wrath of Khan, video, villain

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Stewart Midwinter

Times have surely changed. That massive boat of a Cordoba was billed as “the small Chrysler”. The wasteful days of cheap gasoline are gone… or are they? The current oil price under $40/bbl is actually less than the oil-shock price in 1974, taking inflation into account.