In Scarface, a torrid Florida-set update of Howard Hawks’ Depression-era drama, Salazar was Chi-Chi, the pintsized footsoldier who rescues Pacino’s migrant-turned-kingpin Tony Montana after an ambush by chainsaw-wielding rival Hector the Toad (Al Israel). Cast to assist Pacino with his Cuban accent, Salazar was rewarded with the role of the last of Montana’s gang to die, shot down after a Colombian cartel attack the protagonist’s cocaine-dusted Miami mansion.
The film set an early watermark for 1980s excess, going way beyond its initial shooting schedule: “We were meant to film for two months,” Salazar told a podcast in 2022, “We end up filming seven months.” Yet its pop-cultural footprint was sizeable. Montana’s command “Chi-Chi, get the yayo” (anglicised Spanish for cocaine) adorned T-shirts and memes, and Salazar reprised his role in the video for “I’m Not a Player”, rapper Big Pun’s US hit of 1997.
Carlito’s Way, drawn from novels by the Puerto Rican judge-turned-author Edwin Torres, was comparably rife with Latin colour. Draped in gaudy scarlet, Salazar played Walberto, an old associate who welcomes Pacino’s ex-con Carlito Brigante back to New York’s streets following his release from prison (“Should have figured I’d find you walking around up here. Doing a little memory lane”).
Another dazzling display of De Palma’s virtuosity, the film served as an unofficial Scarface reunion: Pacino, Salazar and Israel were joined on set by Michael P. Moran, a.k.a. Nick the Pig in the earlier film. Though a slower burn than Scarface’s hair-trigger fireworks – reviews mixed-to-positive, receipts solid rather than spectacular – it was another tale of the American melting pot with some basis in Salazar’s own experience.
Born March 2, 1956, Salazar had left Cuba aged eighteen, swimming to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay where he claimed political asylum. He settled in New York, where he began performing stand-up and auditioning for film roles, initially playing toughs and scrabblers in the urban dramas that were then in vogue; his screen debut came among the delinquents of Boulevard Nights (1979), Warner Bros’ attentive portrait of L.A. gang life.
Post-Scarface, he was seen soliciting the voluptuous Kitten Natividad at a stripjoint (“I have Visa! Master Charge!”) in teen pic The Wild Life (1984), and playing a stand-up in Punchline (1988). In later life, he lent stocky support to microbudget features, often with Hispanic performers and themes: he followed the Dan Brown spoof Da Pinche Code (2012) with separate roles in vampires-versus-zombies sequels Vamp Bikers Dos (2015) and Vamp Bikers Tres (2016).
Working at this level could be frustrating. “The industry has changed completely,” Salazar lamented in 2017. “I’m an old school actor, and I work with a script… These days I ask the young filmmakers: ‘where is the script?’ and most tell me that it’s in their minds.” There were also brushes with the law: a drunk-driving charge in 2012, followed by an arrest in Arizona in 2016 for defaulting on child support.
Yet he expressed pride in certain ventures, not least his collaborations with Nelson Denis, the New York State assemblyman turned filmmaker with whom Salazar made the political satire Vote for Me! (2003) and Make America Great Again (2018), where Salazar played a Dominican navigating the iniquities of the US immigration system. These liberal endeavours ran counter to his own stated politics: a lifelong Republican, Salazar became a vocal Trump supporter online.
His final role will be in The Brooklyn Premiere (2025), an indie comedy about the making of a Scarface parody, further indication that one role can loom over a performer’s entire career. No matter that, as Salazar pointed out in his stand-up set, Chi-Chi ultimately bore little relation to lived reality: “If a bunch of Colombians are coming up to me with machine guns… man, I would not give a f*** about Al Pacino.”
Ángel Salazar, born March 2, 1956, died August 11, 2024.
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