--- name: "Duncan Renaldo" canonical: "https://film.one/person/duncan-renaldo" roles: ["Actor"] born: "23 April 1904" died: "3 September 1980" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 58 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T00:54:45.729550+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Duncan Renaldo Actor. Born 23 April 1904 in Oancea, Galați, Romania. Died 3 September 1980. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 23 April 1904, Oancea, Galați, Romania - **Died:** 3 September 1980 - **Active:** 1931–1943 - **Also known as:** Renault Renaldo Duncan, Vasile Dumitru Cugheanos - **Average Fi1m score:** 58, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 58 (1), 1940s 58 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Renaldo, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5314585, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719121/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/144387 ## Fi1m on Duncan Renaldo > A handsome, pleasant, faintly anonymous supporting player for the best part of twenty years, Duncan Renaldo found the one part that fitted him at forty and kept it for a decade. The Cisco Kid is where to look; most of what came before is furniture. Watch Renaldo in almost anything and you will see the same thing: a good-looking man standing near the story, wearing the hat well, and letting the people around him make the decisions. In *Trader Horn* (1931) he is Peru, the young man who has come up the river with Harry Carey's old trader, and our review called him a decent young man in a hat. That was not unkind. It was all the part asked, and Renaldo did not ask more of it than the part did. He came to acting sideways, by way of the merchant navy, portrait painting and producing short films, and signed with MGM in 1928. *The Bridge of San Luis Rey* (1929) and *Trader Horn* followed, the second shot in Africa with lions no set could fake. Then the big studios lost interest, and by the late 1930s he was working steadily at Republic and Monogram, in B-westerns and serials, the Three Mesquiteers pictures among them, sometimes the hero's friend and sometimes the villain, and cast as Latin whenever a script needed one because he looked the part. There were occasional trips back to the main lots, in *Spawn of the North* and as Lieutenant Berrendo in *For Whom the Bell Tolls* (1943). Then in 1945 came *In Old New Mexico* for Monogram, and with it the Cisco Kid. That is the role, and it is worth being clear why. The Cisco Kid as Renaldo played him is clean-shaven, courteous and does not kill anyone; he and Leo Carrillo's Pancho get out of trouble by being cleverer than the men causing it. Renaldo put it plainly himself: "We never killed anybody. We just outsmarted them." It happens to be what he could do. He was never convincing as a man who might hurt you, so a hero who declined to was the right fit. He played it in features from 1945 and then in 156 episodes of television between 1950 and 1956, in colour, with George Sherman directing him on five of the films. We have not reviewed the series and will not judge it at length, but it is the reason anyone still knows the name. What does not work is everything that needs him to hold the eye on his own. Watching *Trader Horn*, we sat up for the lions and stayed up for Carey and Mutia Omoolu, and we kept forgetting Renaldo was in the frame until the script needed someone to stand next to Edwina Booth. He does not draw attention unless the film has told us where to look, and the MGM years mostly did not. So skip the early prestige and find the Cisco Kid. Twenty years of standing beside the hero turned out to be the training. The character is a man who does not draw his gun, and Renaldo had been not drawing it since 1928. ## Biography Duncan Renaldo was a Romanian-born American actor. Born Vasile Dumitru Cugheanos on 23 April 1904 in Oancea, Galați County, Romania, he arrived in the United States in the early 1920s and began working in films in the late 1920s. He appeared in early sound features including *The Bridge of San Luis Rey* (1929) and *Trader Horn* (1931), in which he played Peru. In the 1930s his career was interrupted by immigration proceedings; he was convicted of perjury and served time before receiving a presidential pardon. Renaldo later worked in numerous Westerns and serials for Republic and Monogram Pictures. He is best known for portraying the Cisco Kid in a series of films from 1945 and in the television series *The Cisco Kid* (1950–1956), opposite Leo Carrillo as Pancho. Renaldo received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his television work. He died on 3 September 1980 in Goleta, California. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, britannica.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *For Whom the Bell Tolls* (1943), Fi1m 58, as Lt. Berrendo — [page](https://film.one/film/for-whom-the-bell-tolls.md) - *Trader Horn* (1931), Fi1m 58, as Peru — [page](https://film.one/film/trader-horn.md) ## Complete filmography (72) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Western von gestern* (1978), series, as Renaldo - *The Lady and the Bandit* (1951), Story - *The Highwayman* (1951), Screenstory - *The Cisco Kid* (1950), series, as The Cisco Kid - *The Capture* (1950), as Carlos - *The Girl from San Lorenzo* (1950), as The Cisco Kid - *Satan's Cradle* (1949), as The Cisco Kid · Associate Producer - *The Daring Caballero* (1949), as The Cisco Kid - *The Gay Amigo* (1949), as The Cisco Kid - *The Valiant Hombre* (1948), as The Cisco Kid - *Sword of the Avenger* (1948), as Fernando - *Jungle Flight* (1947), as Police Captain Costa - *Bells of San Fernando* (1947), Story, Screenplay, Producer - *Don Ricardo Returns* (1946), Screenplay - *Jungle Terror* (1946), as Armand Roget - *South of the Rio Grande* (1945), as The Cisco Kid - *In Old New Mexico* (1945), as The Cisco Kid - *The Cisco Kid Returns* (1945), as The Cisco Kid - *Sheriff of Sundown* (1944), as Chihuahua Ramírez - *San Antonio Kid* (1944), as Johnny Bennett - *The Tiger Woman* (1944), as José Delgado - *Call of the South Seas* (1944), as Commissioner Charcot - *The Fighting Seabees* (1944), as Construction Worker at Party - *Hands Across the Border* (1944), as Juan Morales - *Around the World* (1943), as Dragoman - *Tiger Fangs* (1943), as Peter Jeremy - *Secret Service In Darkest Africa* (1943), as Capt. Pierre LaSalle - *For Whom the Bell Tolls* (1943), as Lt. Berrendo — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/for-whom-the-bell-tolls.md) - *Mission to Moscow* (1943), as Italian Reporter (uncredited) - *Border Patrol* (1943), as Commandante - *King of the Mounties* (1942), as Pierre (Ch. 1, 11-12) - *A Yank in Libya* (1942), as Sheik David - *Outlaws of the Desert* (1941), as Sheik Suleiman - *Gauchos of El Dorado* (1941), as Gaucho / José Ojara - *Down Mexico Way* (1941), as Juan - *King of the Texas Rangers* (1941), as Lt. Pedro Garcia - *Bad Men of Missouri* (1941), as Dan - *South of Panama* (1941), as Captain of Police - *Heroes of the Saddle* (1940), as Rico - *Oklahoma Renegades* (1940), as Rico Rinaldo - *Rocky Mountain Rangers* (1940), as Rico - *Gaucho Serenade* (1940), as Gaucho Don José - *Covered Wagon Days* (1940), as Rico Rinaldo - *Pioneers of the West* (1940), as Rico - *The Mad Empress* (1939), as Col. Miguel López - *South of the Border* (1939), as Andreo Mendoza - *Cowboys from Texas* (1939), as Rico Rinaldo - *The Kansas Terrors* (1939), as Renaldo - *Rough Riders' Round-up* (1939), as Alcalde Don Enriguez - *The Lone Ranger Rides Again* (1939), as Juan Vasquez - *Spawn of the North* (1938), as Ivan - *Tropic Holiday* (1938), as Young Blood (uncredited) - *Rose of the Rio Grande* (1938), as Sebastian - *Zorro Rides Again* (1937), as Renaldo - *Sky Racket* (1937), as Count Barksi - *Jungle Menace* (1937), as Armand Roget - *The Painted Stallion* (1937), as Zamorro - *Mile a Minute Love* (1937), as Count Ribalto · Story - *Ten Laps to Go* (1936), as Eddie DeSylva - *Two Minutes to Play* (1936), as Lew Ashley - *Rebellion* (1936), as Ricardo Castillo - *Lady Luck* (1936), as Tony Morelli - *Special Agent K-7* (1936), as Tony Blank - *Moonlight Murder* (1936), as Pedro - *The Moth* (1934), as Don Pedro - *Public Stenographer* (1934), as Henchman Orsini - *Trapped in Tia Juana* (1932), as Lt. Kenneth Holbert / El Zorro - *Trader Horn* (1931), as Peru — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/trader-horn.md) - *Pals of the Prairie* (1929), as Francisco Valencia - *The Bridge of San Luis Rey* (1929), as Esteban - *The Love Charm* (1928), Writer - *Clothes Make the Woman* (1928), Actor ## Gallery - ![Duncan Renaldo, aka The Cisco Kid, in his trophy room in Santa Barbara (Goleta), Ca., circa 1973-74, (2010)](https://film.one/media/person/1225307/gallery-47e43657772d.jpg) Duncan Renaldo, aka The Cisco Kid, in his trophy room in Santa Barbara (Goleta), Ca., circa 1973-74, (2010) — CHVentures, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/DuncanRenaldo.jpg/1280px-DuncanRenaldo.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Black-and-white publicity photo of Duncan Renaldo (April 23, 1904–September 3, 1980) as The Cisco Kid and his horse, Diablo. This photo was distributed at perso (1953)](https://film.one/media/person/1225307/gallery-d6df148bf03c.jpg) Black-and-white publicity photo of Duncan Renaldo (April 23, 1904–September 3, 1980) as The Cisco Kid and his horse, Diablo. This photo was distributed at perso (1953) — B & I Circus Store, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Duncan_Renaldo_as_The_Cisco_Kid.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Photo of Duncan Renaldo as The Cisco Kid and his horse, Diablo.](https://film.one/media/person/1225307/gallery-831eda1e228d.jpg) Photo of Duncan Renaldo as The Cisco Kid and his horse, Diablo. — Butternut Bread, sponsor of the show in the Chicago area., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Duncan_Renaldo_Cisco_Kid_with_Diablo.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Duncan Renaldo](https://film.one/media/person/1225307/gallery-6445355044fc.jpg) Duncan Renaldo — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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