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During the screening of CHIPS Erik Estrada was an international household name. His character Francis, “Ponch” Poncherello was seen on a weekly basis keeping Californian streets from a top of his motorcycle. However once the show ended, Estrada was cut from the limelight, unless that is if you happen to watch Latin American Soap Operas.
Henry Enrique Estrada was born on 16 March 1949 in the Upper East Side of New York City. He was one of several children in a Puerto Rican family who was essentially raised between his mother and grandfather. Initially Estrada thought of being a real policeman, but to impress a girl he ended up in drama classes. He pursued the acting line with increasing vigour, landing his first role in Don Murray’s moralistic family film The Cross and the Switchblade. Here Estrada played Nicky Cruz a local gang leader.
Estrada then started to pop up in several movies and TV spots including appearances in Hawaii Five-O, Baretta, and The Six Million Dollar Man. All this led to his casting in CHiPS, which ran from 1977 to 1983. This made Estrada so popular that he appeared on toys, lunchboxes, collector-cards, puzzles, mugs, t-shirts, towels, and teen magazines.
Being on CHiPs wasn’t all smooth sailing though. Estrada had a motorcycle accident early on in the show while on set. The footage of the accident was not aired and luckily enough for Estrada, his injury was not so serious as to stop him working. In 1981 he had a salary dispute with NBC prompting him to briefly leave the show. For this period he was replaced with 1976 US Olympic decathlon Gold Medallist Bruce Jenner. Finally Estrada had a falling out with some cast members, most notably Tom Reilly who played Officer Bobby 'Hot Dog' Nelson. Reilly was later arrested for possession of marijuana.
Once CHiPs was cancelled Estrada quickly faded from the spot light and had trouble finding work. He perhaps reached rock bottom at one point where he travelled to Thailand to avoid the Screen Actors Guild and got the only work that was coming his way, which was with a sub-union and a far cry from his fame on CHiPS.
Estrada’s fortune finally turned around when he landed the part of Johnny in Dos Mujertes, Un Camino, a Mexican soap opera. Despite his Puerto Rican heritage Estrada had not learnt Spanish so now had to go through a crash course to be on par with the other cast members. This meant taking 30 days of straight 8-hour lessons in Berlitz Spanish. Estrada was then assisted with his lines through an earpiece during filming. The Spanish lessons paid off and the show, which was originally slated for 100 episodes, lasted for over 400 and became the biggest Soap Opera in Latin American History.
Since this Estrada has been making appearances in several TV shows. On his recent resume are his appearances in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Bold and the Beautiful, Lizzie McGuire, V.I.P., Baywatch, Scrubs, and his current role in the Cartoon Network show Sealab 2021. He has also appeared in several music videos’ including Bad Religion’s Infected, The Butthole Surfers’ Pepper, and Eminem’s Just Lose It. Estrada has also become a spokesperson for D.A.R.E., for Smoke Signals Communications, for a range of vitamins, and for C.H.P.’s, a car seat inspection and installation programme.
In addition to a number of parodies on his past Estrada has officially revisited his famous character once with the 1998 TV movie CHiPs '99. Erik has written an autobiography entitled Erik Estrada: My Life From Harlem to Hollywood. Erik still lives in Hollywood, has been married three times and has two sons and a daughter.
Check out all there is to know about Erik at www.erikestrada.com .
Selected TV and Movie Appearances:
2005 Taylor Made [TV]
2004 Sealab 2021: Season 04 [TV]
2004 "Maya & Miguel" [TV]
2003 Santa's Wild and Wacky Christmas [doc]
2003 Sealab 2021: Season 03 [TV]
2002 National Lampoon's Van Wilder
2002 Sealab 2021: Season 02 [anim]
2001 Sealab 2021 [Animated TV Series]
2000 The Magic of Thailand [doc]
2000 Sealab 2021: Season 01 [anim]
2000 Destroying America
1999 The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1999 The Misery Brothers Y2K
1998 King Cobra
1998 CHiPs '99 [TV] Producer / Actor
1997 "Noi siamo angeli" a.k.a We Are Angels [TV]
1996 Panic in the Skies!
1994 Gang Justice
1993 "Dos mujeres, un camino" a.k.a Two Women, One Road [TV]
1993 National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1
1992 The Naked Truth
1991 Angel Eyes
1991 Earth Angel [TV]
1991 Sounds of Silence
1991 Do or Die a.k.a Girls, Games and Guns
1991 The Divine Enforcer [TV]
1990 Guns
1990 The Last Riders
1990 Caged Fury Associate Producer / Actor
1990 Spirits
1990 A Show of Force
1990 Night of the Wilding [TV]
1989 She Knows Too Much [TV]
1989 Alien Seed
1989 Twisted Justice
1989 Andy and the Airwave Rangers
1988 The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission
1986 Hour of the Assassin
1985 Lightblast
1985 Il Pentito a.k.a The Repenter
1984 Where is Parsifal?
1982 Honeyboy [TV]
1981 Fort Apache, the Bronx
1980 The Line
1979 Greatest Adventures of CHiPS [TV]
1979 Drive, Lady, Drive [TV]
1977 Fire [TV]
1977 CHiPs [TV]
1976 Midway
1976 Trackdown
1976 The Longest Drive [TV]
1976 Baretta: Dead Man Out [TV]
1975 The Demon and the Mummy [TV]
1974 Airport 1975
1972 The Ballad of Billie Blue
1972 Parades
1972 The New Centurions
1972 Jailbreakin'
1970 The Cross and the Switchblade
Notable TV Guest Appearances:
2004 "Eminem: Just Lose It"
2004 "Hollywood Squares"
2004 "The Sharon Osbourne Show"
2003 "Scrubs" in episode: "My Fifteen Seconds"
2002 "Lizzie McGuire" in episode: "El oro de Montezuma"
2001 "The Bold and the Beautiful" playing "Eduardo Dominguez"
2001 "Weakest Link" in episode: "Classic TV Stars"
2000 "Son of the Beach" in episode: "South of Her Border"
2000 "Popular" in episodes: "Two Weddings and a Funeral", "We Are Family", and "Ch-Ch-Changes"
1999 "Walker, Texas Ranger" in episode: "The Lynn Sisters"
1999 "V.I.P." episodes: "Return of the Owl" and "Thunder Val"
19999 "Family Guy" in episode: "I Never Met the Dead Man"
1998 "King of the Hill" in episode: "Peggy's Pageant Fever"
1997 "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" in episodes: "Sabrina Gets Her License: Part 1" and "Sabrina Gets Her License: Part 2"
1997 "The Rosie O'Donnell Show"
1997 "Homeboys in Outer Space" in episode: "How the West Was Lost or, Daddy's Home"
1997 "The Wayans Bros." in episode: "Risky Bid-ness"
1997 "Martin" in episode: "You Play Too Much"
1997 "Baywatch" in episode: "Search & Rescue"
1995 "Cybill" in episode: "How Can I Call You My Ex-Husbands If You Won't Go Away?"
1995 "The Nanny" in episode: "Kindervelt Days"
1994 "The Cosby Mysteries" in episode: "Self Defence"
1993 "L.A. Law" in episode: "Where There's a Will"
1987 "Hunter" in episodes: "City of Passion: Part 1", "City of Passion: Part 2", and "City of Passion: Part 3" (episode # 4.8) 21 November 1987
1978 "The Love Boat" in episode: "The Where Is It Written? / Julie's Aunt/Big Deal" 1976 "Baretta" in episodes: "Dead Man Out" and "Shadow of Guilt"
1976 "Barnaby Jones" in episode # 4.19.
1975 "The Six Million Dollar Man" in episode: "The Deadly Test"
1975 "Kojak" in episode: "Close Cover Before Killing"
1973 "Hawaii Five-O" in episode: "Engaged to be Buried"
Quotes:
"We never drew out guns on our show. Ours was a more informational type of show with a lot of kids in it. It was a totally different show than what they do today."
"I was hooked on acting from that time on. I experienced emotions I had never felt before. I still don't understand it all - I only know that I need to perform. It must be my way of giving to others, and giving to myself at the same time."
“You can't take yourself too seriously for too long, or you'll lose it.”
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