Actor Kamar de los Reyes, best known for playing police officer Antonio Vega in the TV series “One Life to Live” and voicing villain Raul Menendez in the “Call of Duty” video game series, died Sunday in Los Angeles. . He was 56 years old.
Lisa Goldberg, his publicist, actress Sherri Som, said the cause was cancer.
Mr. de los Reyes was born in San Juan, PR, on November 8, 1967, to a Cuban father, Alfredo de los Reyes, and a Puerto Rican mother, Matilde Baggs. He described himself as “from a musical family”: his two brothers and father were famous percussionists, and his grandfather was a famous trumpet player.
Mr. de los Reyes grew up in Las Vegas, and after high school, moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. But his first big break was in New York, where he took on the role of Pedro Quinn in the off-Broadway play “Blade to the Heat,” a performance that New York Times theater critic David Richards called in 1994 “the most interesting” in the show. “.
“More than any words he utters,” Richards wrote, “the actor’s haunted eyes, sunken cheeks, and shaved head convey the extent of Pedro’s torment.” “At rest, he is almost spectral. In the ring, he sounds like a short circuit, and his silent, triumphant screams are a guaranteed spine-tingling sensation.
In his longest-running and perhaps most widely recognized role, Mr. de los Reyes played gangster-turned-police officer, Antonio Vega, in the television series “One Life to Live.” He appeared in nearly 300 episodes of the series, from 1995 to 1998 and again from 2000 to 2009. After his character was released from a prison sentence for murder when it was revealed that he was acting in self-defense, he became a police officer . officer and had a series of romantic entanglements.
His wife, Ms. Som, was also on “One Life to Live” from 2001 to 2003, before the two actors married. Her character Kerry Reynolds and his character were romantically involved.
The show, which ran mostly from 1968 to 2012 on ABC, was groundbreaking for its diverse cast, including the first black actor to play a lead role on daytime television. That actress, Ellen Holly, died this month.
In 2007 interview With Urban Latino Magazine, Mr. de los Reyes said of the show, “We're one of the few series that has an all-Latino family, a Puerto Rican family, which you don't see a lot of, not just in daytime but prime-time television in general, which I feel like Network TV needs to work harder on it.
“I think 'One Life to Live' did a tremendous job in that regard,” he added.
Mr. de los Reyes also voiced the villain Raul Menendez in the 2012 video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” as well as “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4” and “Call of Duty: Vanguard.” His character is often viewed as one of the best villains in the franchise.
At the time of his death, he was filming the CW sports drama “All American,” and had recently filmed roles in the upcoming series “Daredevil: Born Again” and the miniseries “Washington Black,” according to his wife's publicist.
In addition to his wife, Mr. de los Reyes leaves behind three children, Kaylyn, Michael and John; His brothers are Daniel and Alfredo Jr. His sisters are Lily and Ilde. And his parents.
