Nestor Paiva

Nestor Paiva (June 30, 1905 – September 9, 1966) was an American actor of Portuguese descent. He is most famous for portraying Theo Gonzales the innkeeper in Walt Disney's TV series Zorro and its feature film The Sign of Zorro, as well as Lucas the boat captain in The Creature from the Black Lagoon and its sequel Revenge of the Creature. 2Early years Paiva attended the University of California. During his senior year, he directed a production, The Youngest, after the previous director resigned because of sickness. 2Career In the early 1930s, Paiva was director of the Eight o'Clock Players troupe at KLX radio in Oakland, California. Nestor appeared in motion pictures and television shows from the 1930s to the 1960s such as The Lone Ranger , Zorro, Get Smart, Bonanza, I Spy, Family Affair, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Daniel Boone, and The Addams Family. In 1943, he played the Italian Major in the 20th Century Fox wartime movie Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas. He played the part of Lucas (the boat captain) in the 1954 horror film The Creature from the Black Lagoon starring Ben Chapman as the title monster; Paiva would reprise this role in that film's sequel Revenge of the Creature the following year, thus becoming the only actor to appear in more than one film in the series. He appeared in more than 250 movie