Beyond paradise

"Ramon Novarro was for years one of the top actors in Hollywood - the first Latin American performer to become a Hollywood superstar. Born Ramon Samaniego to a prominent Mexican family, Novarro arrived in Hollywood in 1916 as a refugee from the civil wars that rocked Mexico in the early twentieth century. By the mid-1920s, he had become one of MGM's most important leading men, going on to star in a series of now-classic films, including The Student Prince, Mata Hari, and the original version of Ben-Hur. He shared the screen with the era's most important leading ladies, such as Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford, and Norma Shearer, and became Rudolph Valentino's main rival in the "Latin Lover" category. But despite his considerable professional accomplishments, Novarro's most enduring claim to fame is his tragic death - his bloodied corpse was found in his house on Halloween in 1968 in what has become one of the most infamous scandals in the vast lore of Hollywood.". "Novarro was a lifelong bachelor who had carefully cultivated his image as a man deeply devoted to his family and to his religious convictions. His murder shattered that image as news reports revealed to the general