Cesar Romero by Samuel Garza Bernstein

I never used to think I was a person who liked biographies until I read the Power Broker. I got into it when listening to the Power Broker podcast on 99% Invisible with Elliot Kalan and once I started it I couldn’t stop. After finishing that I read all of Robert Caro’s LBJ books and I realized I did like biographies after all. So I was curious when I saw a Cesar Romero biography on NetGalley. I of course loved the ‘66 Batman series, but otherwise I didn’t know much about Mr. Romero. This book was enjoyable and well written, but it felt a bit thin. I know not everyone is Robert Caro, but I was hoping for a little more depth here. This book sometimes fell into plot synopses of Cesar Romero’s work without delving very deeply into his inner life. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it and am glad I read it.

"Dynamic and debonair, Cesar Romero was best known for creating the role of the Joker in the 1960s Batman television series. As the first actor to play Batman and Robin's villainous nemesis, Romero established the character's giddy, manic tone and the distinctive laugh that subsequent actors like Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, and Joaquin Phoenix would use as the starting points in their own Oscar-nominated (Nicholson) and Oscar-winning (Ledger and Phoenix) performances. As a closeted gay man of Latin American descent, Romero gracefully faced many personal challenges while maintaining his suave public image and starring opposite legends ranging from Shirley Temple to Marlene Dietrich, Carmen Miranda to Frank Sinatra, and Kurt Russell to Jane Wyman.

The first biography of the consummate entertainer, Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild, captures the critical moments of Romero's childhood, adolescence, and accomplishments in Hollywood. Author Samuel Garza Bernstein shares anecdotes regarding Romero's public and personal life, as well as Romero's private disdain for his reputation as the "Latin lover," a discriminatory stereotype he found constrictive both in terms of his range as an actor and as a man who kept his sexuality private.

Cesar Romero is an in-depth study of a significant Hollywood star and his impact on the entertainment industry. Batman made him immortal, but with more than four hundred film and television credits, his six-decade career as an actor, dancer, and singer made him a true Hollywood icon."

I love the story that he wouldn't shave his mustache to play the Joker because it would rule him out for the "Latin lover" roles. Something this cover catches perfectly.

Romero was a remarkable man who went through a lot in his childhood, teen years and adulthood.
I enjoyed reading about all of his film roles besides Joker, which is legendary.

I wish the personal opinions were less.

NetGalley/ University Press of Kentucky August 26,2025

I have watched the 1960s Batman TV show and found it very entertaining. I wanted to read this biography of the actor Cesar Romero who played the Joker on the show but it turns out the book is not available to read on the NetGalley reader. Since the NetGalley shelf does not work for me (except for ALCs) and I cannot download ARCs on the Adilko app anymore, sadly I won't be able to read and review the book. I will just leave a rating based on how other have rated it.

I remember watching the Batman show as a kid with my dad but after reading this it makes me want to re-watch it with a fresh prospective.

I don't read many biographies because I feel like a lot of times authors can project their own personal thoughts on what happened into it too much, but this one seemed to be the bare facts without too much speculating. This made for more to the point and concise read which I very much appreciated.

Chris Begley was relating a story about Michael Keaton on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “Colbert started to transition the interview to Spider-Man by saying ‘You’ve been Batman, Birdman…’ but before he could finish, Keaton corrected him. ‘Yes, I *am* Batman’. No past tense there!” (Keaton supposedly ad libbed that in the movie.) I could see Cesar Romero saying “I *am* the Joker” in interviews, and for me, he will always be *The* Joker. My adult sons will disagree with my ranking (and they’d be wrong!). And he’ll always be his alter ego, A. J. Arno. NetGalley offered an advance read and I liked this a lot.

Fascinating man. I don’t recall reading other biographies written in present tense, so that was new to me. The author says in his Afterword, “I certainly respected Cesar Romero before starting this project. But I have come to love him-for everything he was and for everything he never had the chance to be, at least not publicly.”

This biography is comprehensive. At times effusive. At times candid. The author speculates but doesn’t presume, and treats Mr. Romero with great respect. And even summarizes every film and television appearance of Romero (in chrono order.) Impressive. I never watched Falcon Crest, so the six pages of plot summaries (at the end of the book and before the chronology) of that were lost on me, though not, I expect, on fans.

[on Romero’s more than 500 credits] “That body of work speaks for itself, but I hope the exploration of that work in this book encourages people to seek out his per-formances. The Joker is iconic. Peter Stavros is melodramatic perfection.
But his many, many other characters deserve to live on as well.”

Indeed they do. Recommended for fans of Romero, fans of the Joker, fans of the era.


[on Batman]”This is a show where a man in a mask and bat ears, wearing a cape and skintight underpants over his tights, can walk into a nightclub, ask for a booth near the wall, and add, completely deadpan, in a lower voice, ‘I shouldn't wish to attract attention.’”

[also on Batman] “A vision of what the show might look like starts coming into his [exec producer William Dozier’s] head-something he refers to as the ‘pop art technique of the exaggerated cliché.’"

I like that. Saving it.

[interesting to me] “Some authors writing about GLBTQIA+ history in Hollywood believe that studio concerns over Romero's sexuality and the character's evolution into something of a fop are part of the reason. for pulling the plug [on Romero as Cisco the Kid],…”

I don’t often see the G and L swapped (the author uses the initialization in the “usual” order later.)

[On John Ford] “Another director, working faster and staying on schedule, might have done it more efficiently, certainly without the close-ups. Romero's is so beautifully lit, with his cheekbones so perfectly shadowed, he might as well be Marlene Dietrich but with human feeling.”

Love that… “but with human feeling.”

I'm a Cesar Romero fan and was hoping for a little more depth and insight about his life. This biography did not deliver. It was a very surface level description of Romero's life that often felt more like a resumé than a biography. Often there were large sections that were clearly padding, such as several paragraphs about the plot of "Falcon Crest."

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of the book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A fascinating biography of Cesar Romero. I’ll admit that beyond his appearances as the Joker in Batman ‘66, I wasn’t very familiar with his work, but I will certainly take a deeper look into some of his filmography in the future.

Thanks to University Press of Kentucky and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

Samuel Garza Bernstein has written an in-depth biography of the handsome, versatile and famous actor, Cesar Romero. Best known for his campy role as the original television Joker, foil to Batman, Romero (1907-1994) had a long and illustrious career in both film and television.
Typecast as a ‘Latin Lover’ in films from the 1930s-1950s, Romero acknowledged the work but despised the label. Romero also served in the US Navy in WWII while he adroitly hid the fact that he was a gay man.
The author shows the depth of his research and fills in information without resorting to fictionalized conversations to provide information. That being said, about half of the book is a chronological listing of Romero’s roles and a wonderful collection of photos from Romero’s life. Romero never married but remained close to his family, who moved west with him from Manhattan.

University Press of Kentucky provided an early galley for review.

As an unapologetic, life-long fan of the 60's Batman television show, I always enjoyed Romero's performances wherever I encountered them. When I saw this title coming, I had to read it. For me, this portrayal made me love the character so much (I had every issue of the short run The Joker comic series back in the 70's which inspired some of the very first fanfiction I ever crafted back in junior high school).

Bernstein presents the actor's life in a straightforward manner, offering minimal conjecture or speculation. His sources include newspaper clippings and entertainment magazines of the times, showing the level of detailed research executed. Chapter five solely focuses on the Batman show which likely was Romero's farthest-reaching role up to that point. There were certainly several details that were new to me here. It also touches upon a trio of Disney films in which Romero appeared (films I certainly recall seeing in theaters as a kid in the early 1970's). Chapter seven focuses on Romero's time on Falcon Crest, a fifty-episode milestone in an already landmark career.

The book rounds out with an in-depth chronology of all Romero's appearances in film and television as well as a large collection of photographs.

There is no doubt that Cesar Romero led an amazing life with a Hollywood career that stretched across over half a century. It is also beyond a doubt that Bernstein has done some very thorough research in tracking down every scrap of public information about Romero's life and career. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a "book" which for the most part is really just a chronology/appendix of Romero's nearly six decades-long career with a brief narrative tying together the publicly available social aspects of Romero's life away from the camera (though nothing that was remotely out of the public eye) as a preface to that chronology.

Yet even in the narrative, far too often Bernstein simply overwhelms with nearly paragraph-long lists of people almost as if to pad the lack of substance in the narrative. It honestly felt like the equivalent of a student tasked with writing a 500-word essay on the Declaration of Independence choosing to list every single member of the Second Continental Congress as a large list providing their full name and represented colony and then stopping as soon as they hit the magic 500-word count. The majority of the writing was also very dry, resorting to mere declarations of the facts except where any hints and innuendos of Romero's sexual orientation could be included. While the sheer depth and breadth of detail and research were beyond exceptional, this "book" was really just the ultimate IMDb entry in print form, with half of the book comprising a listing of every appearance by Romero in film and television, not just by series but even by episode as in the case of his regular role on Falcon Crest.

For data overload, Bernstein's book is five-stars of compiled data. As a biography that helps you learn more about the person, rather than just a list of their accomplishments, it is 2.5 stars.

A thank you to NetGalley and University Press of Kentucky for the opportunity to read this eARC.

Whether you know him from Batman or Falcon Crest, Samuel Garza Bernstein’s Cesar Romero biography introduces you to the full facets of Cesar’s life. First, the cover of the book is absolutely gorgeous. Second, the introduction is a beautiful love letter to Cesar Romero’s character and career. If you’re unfamiliar with Batman’s first Joker, jumping into this intro will hook you to dive deeper into the book.

Garza Bernstein writes without fluff. He writes factually based on Cesar Romero’s own archives, magazine clippings and career catalog. Despite it being a quick read, I appreciate that he didn’t create scenarios or insinuated facets that may not have been accurate. There is respect for Romero regarding his sexuality and the author doesn’t try to exploit him.

While I appreciated the author detailing each season of Falcon Crest, it’s the only time he delves so heavily into plot that it feels like he’s just trying to take up space. But it absolutely made me want to watch it! The chronology at the end of the book is dense but rich, expanding on roles left out of the text which are filled with fun facts and little jokes. It’s a beautiful tribute to a man who worked up until his death. Whether you’re familiar with his work or not, you’ll find something new to watch after reading this book. Here’s hoping TCM hosts a tribute of Romero movies soon!

Thank you to University Press of Kentucky for this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When it comes to influential and iconic Hispanic actors on the US screen and stage of the time, Romero is on a very short list that includes José Ferrer, Rita Moreno, and Anthony Quinn. This is a marvelously researched and written biography that's as entertaining as it is informative.

When I first started reading I was drawn in by the subject Cesar Romero as he was my childhood Joker. The first two chapters were intriguing, as I never would have known anything written describing his early life or start in New York and Hollywood. It’s encouraged me to look into some of the roles I had no idea he took, like in Charlie’s Angels, etc. However, I did find my interest and focus drifting throughout and away from the book, as the information about his life didn’t seem to joined together smoothly under the chapter titles/disjointed.

I literally just picked up this book because of the cover. I was so glad I did. I didn't know Mr. Romero beyond watching him as the Joker on Batman reruns. Mr. Samuel really did an excellent job on covering Cesar 's early years. No other section that I admired the most was reading the years of service that Cesar served during the War. My only complaint was the ending chapters seemed rushed and didn't have the same flow and focus on Romero's life like the early chapters. I don't know if it was a lack of resources or what but it left me wanting to no more of Romero golden years.
Overall a good read

n amazing story of the graceful and debonair man who was memorialized as the 1960s Joker
cesar romero established what we know as the giddy, manic and iconic Joker, layig the pathway for future actors and revolutionalized the industry of personal vs public image
as a closeted gay man of latin american decent, he was faced with many problems while maintaining his public image
covering his 60 year career with stories from his childhood to the accomplishments in hollywood, we follow cesars life meeting famous people, his catolog of over 400 films and tv shows

My only previous knowledge, and I say this with some embarrassment, of Cesar Romero was as the Joker in Batman. Oh, I knew that he had a career before then, but what that involved I couldn't say. And now I can, thanks to this really rather good book by Samuel Garza Bernstein. In fact, not only did Romero have a career away from the Caped Crusader, half of this book (yes, half) is taken up with a chronological list of his roles plus a splendid photo section (where I was reminded that I did in fact see him in other things, including The Golden Girls. Is there that much of a difference between Adam West and Bea Arthur? I'll let you decide).

Before then, the other great revelation - you should know that I'm not normally this clueless - was that Cesar Romero was gay. All I can think is that even though the Joker was one of the campest ever Super Villains, he was also playing the part in the deliberately camp Batman TV show and thus nobody (by which I mean me) knew.

The book ends, more or less, with an admission by Romero that he didn't really care for Jack Nicholson's Joker. In the hands of anybody else, such a statement could be seen as sour grapes. But really there was only ever one Joker, wasn't there?

The biographical section of the book is slim, but this is more than made up for by the extensive chronology. The detail is astonishing, although some of the entries are frustratingly short. I would like to know more, for example, about a 1992 interview with Howard Stern.

I can only imagine.