Robert Beltran

Early life

Beltran was born in Bakersfield, California, the son of Aurelia Olgin (née Adame) and Louis Perez Beltran, first generation Mexican-Americans. Beltran attended East Bakersfield High School and Bakersfield College. He has two sisters and seven brothers, including the well-known Latin Jazz musician Louie Cruz Beltran.

Career

Beltran graduated from California State University, Fresno with a degree in Theater Arts and moved to Los Angeles to begin his acting career. He has been working steadily since 1979 in both theater and film. Beltran had his first film role in Zoot Suit in 1981, but his breakthrough came in 1982 when he played Raoul in the film Eating Raoul. Beltran also had a supporting role as Chuck Norris' partner, Deputy Kayo in Lone Wolf McQuade in 1983 (this film was also the basis for the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger starring Chuck Norris). He was in the 1984 TV movie The Mystic Warrior as the Native American "Ahbleza", and starred as Hector in 1984's Night of the Comet.

Beltran is perhaps best known for his role as Commander Chakotay, first officer of the starship Voyager, in the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager from 1995 to 2001. Beltran won the Nosotros Golden Eagle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Series in 1997. He was nominated in 1996 for the NCLR Bravo Award for Outstanding Television Series Actor in a Crossover Role, and the ALMA Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Television Series in a Crossover Role in 1998 and 1999.

Beltran founded and co-directed the East LA Classic Theater Group. He is also a member of the Classical Theater Lab, an ensemble of professional actors who co-produced his production of Hamlet in 1997, which he directed and starred in.

Since at least 2003, Beltran has collaborated with amateur actors in performing plays and scenes of plays of William Shakespeare; Beltran produced and starred in a Los Angeles production of "The Big Knife" by Clifford Odets, a play which explores the Hollywood environment under the big studio system of the 1940's.

In May 2009, Beltran played the dual roles of Don Fermin and Older Eusebio in the American Conservatory Theaters staging of José Rivera's Boleros for the Disenchanted. He had a recurring supporting role of Jerry Flute in Seasons 3 and 4 of HBO's Big Love.

Recordings

Latino Poetry Excerpts from a live performance by Beltran (recorded at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, April 2002)

Notable awards & nominations