A tawdry family squabble continues to unfold in the press and a new biography as Mexicans prepare to honor the memory of Mario Moreno "Cantinflas," Mexico's best-loved comic actor, who died of cancer last year.
Moreno's only child, Mario Arturo Moreno Ivanova, has been trading barbs in the press with his cousin, Eduardo Moreno Laparade, in recent days.The quarrel arose when Moreno Ivanova received the bulk of his father's considerable estate, including a ranch, valuable property, several cars and most of the 49 films the comic made during near-ly four decades.
Cantinflas' best-known films include "The Firefighter"; "Patrolman 777"; "The Unknown Gendarme"; and "If I Were President."
In the United States, he is best known for the role as David Niven's servant Passepartout in the 1956 film "Around the World in 80 Days."
Cantinflas was a millionaire when he died of cancer at the age of 81 in April 1993.
The beloved comic created the ragamuffin character who wore a trademark cap; undershirt, kerchief around his neck and trousers slung low over the hips and held together by a rope.
The first salvo in the family fight was fired by Moreno Laparade, when he told the newspaper Reforma that the fortune his cousin inherited from Cantinflas would be gone in less than two years because of Moreno Ivanova's addiction to drugs and alcohol.
Moreno Laparade also said that four of his cousin's five children were born with birth defects because of their father's addictions.
The famous actor's son has never worked and is a spendthrift, the cousin told the newspaper.
Even more damaging, Moreno Laparade charged, Cantinflas was beaten on several occasions by his adopted son when the son was high on drugs. Because of his age, the comic was unable to defend himself, Moreno Laparade said.
After Moreno Ivanova left his first wife and two children, he stopped seeing them or even providing child support, the cousin said.
Moreno Ivanova fired back a few weeks later, alleging his cousin's libelous statements were due to his being left out of Cantinflas' will.
In a lengthy letter to the editor, Cantinflas' son said his first-born did have a birth defect, but it was corrected by surgery.
"It is obvious that . . . who spoke about that has defects in the soul and in his small brain that make him be so cruel and malicious," Moreno Ivanova said of his cousin, whom he identified as his "constant detractor."
Moreno Ivanova also denied being a wastrel and said his cousin had "taken advantage" of his uncle when Cantinflas gave him money for safekeeping.
Many of the same allegations are included in the book, "Mario Moreno and Cantinflas: Break the Silence," released this past week.
The book was published by the Mario Moreno Reyes Foundation, a philanthropic organization headed by the comic's brother, Eduardo Moreno Reyes, and nephew, Eduardo Moreno La-pa-rade.
Profits from the book will benefit the foundation.
Cantinflas was working on the book with writer Guadalupe Elizalde but died before it was completed.
"The happy life of Cantinflas and of Mario Moreno, the successful millionaire, gave way to another reality: that of the man who endured a good number of moral blows and meanness," Elizalde writes in the foreword.
The book reveals that Cantinflas' son has been an alcoholic since the age of 12.
Mario Ivanova's mother, Marion Roberts, an American, was also an alcoholic, and she died of a drug overdose during a visit to Mexico City, Elizalde writes.
Roberts was paid $10,000 by Cantinflas so he could keep the boy, Elizalde reveals in the 500-page book.
However, the comic actor's son asserts in the same book that he was born after his father had an affair with an unidentified woman. Cantinflas' wife, Valentina Ivanova, who died in 1966, was unable to bear children.
One of the chapters is devoted to the palimony suit filed by Joyce Jett of Houston.
Jett, who claimed she and the Mexican comic had a common-law marriage, originally demanded Moreno pay her $26 million.
The suit was finally settled out of court after two years of litigation in courts in the United States and in Mexico.
The amount of the settlement was sealed but the actor told Elizalde he paid Jett $700,000.
"I paid for my tranquility," he said.