In Memorium
Bob Morones 1943-2018
By Luis Reyes
It has been recently announced that pioneering Mexican-American Hollywood casting director Bob Morones, known to his friends as “Blackie,” passed away in Whittier, California on September 15, 2018 at the age of 75.
Morones nurtured many young Latino and non-Latino talents that have gone on to sustain long careers in the entertainment industry such as Edward James Olmos, Oliver Stone, Gregory Nava and Jesus Trevino, among many others. Morones was nominated for an EMMY for “Outstanding Casting” for the ahead of its time NBC Narcos mini-series KingPin (2003), that starred a then-unknown Yancey Arias (Queen of The South). Morones’ achievements are exemplary in that at the time there were limited opportunities for Latinos in the film business and the only other casting director was Vic Ramos who was based in New York. Even today there are only a handful of Latino Casting directors in Hollywood, among them, Yolanda Guillen (Party of Five), Carla Hool (Coco, Rambo 5) and Blanca Valdez.
His casting director credits include the Academy Award-winning Platoon, for which he received the Casting Society of America Artios Award for “Outstanding Feature Casting,” and Academy Award-nominated films Salvador, which he also served as Associate Producer, El Norte, and American Playhouse TV series. He also cast American Me (Edward James Olmos, William Forsythe), Romero, starring Raul Julia, the NBC mini-series Kingpin and the independent film David & Fatima, which won the Film Prize for Peace and Cultural Understanding at the 2008 Wine Country Film Festival.
Mr. Morones has cast over 20 feature films and began his career 26 years ago co-casting the principals on Brian De Palma’s enduring classic Scarface, written by Oliver Stone, starring Al Pacino. He also cast the PBS American Playhouse presentation of the film Seguin,written and directed by Jesus Trevino with A. Martinez, Henry Darrow, Pepe Serna, Danny De la Paz, Enrique Castillo, Rose Portillo and the late Lupe Ontiveros. He also cast Severo Perez’s And The Earth Did Not Swallow Him. The progressive casting director also cast Dennis Leoni’s seminal Showtime cable series Resurrection Blvd., directed by Jesus Trevino that starred Tony Plana, Michael de Lorenzo, Nicholas Gonzalez, Elizabeth Pena, Ruth Livier, Mauricio Mendoza and Daniel Zacapa. Oh Baby! is the most recent film to be released that he had cast in 2009.
Robert Reynaldo Morones was born on January 6, 1943. His father was a chef at the Universal Studios Commissary where he was exposed to Hollywood filmmaking at an early age on his frequent visits to see his dad at the studio.
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