Hervé Villechaize

His health problems also increased (mostly suffering from ulcers and a spastic colon), and he nearly died of pneumonia in 1992.

Due to his resemblance to Felipe González (former president of Spain between 1984-1996), Herve parodied him in a well known Spanish TV show called Viaje con nosotros (1988). In Spain he is still known as "Felipe Gonzalez's double".

In 1983, he argued with the producers of the show in order to earn as much money as Montalban but, instead, he was fired; he also lost his model-actress wife. The series continued without him but stopped one year later, when the media response meter decreased because of the lack of Tattoo's character!Villechaize became alcoholic and depressed, so he missed several roles that he was offered.

He inspired the TV-series Fantasy Island (1977) where he took the role of "Tattoo", the faithful servant of "Mr. Roarke" (Ricardo Montalban). This series was a great success and, thanks to it, Villechaize became famous and rich, mostly because of his enigmatic and charming smile.

His first big success was The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) where he was a killer associated to the villain Scaramanga (played by Christopher Lee).

Hervé Villechaize was born in Paris on April 23, 1943. He stopped growing very early and his father (who was a surgeon) tried to find a cure by visiting several doctors and hospitals. But there was none, so Hervé had to live with his small height and also with undersized lungs. He studied at the Beaux-Arts in Paris and made an exhibition of his own paintings, which were well received. At 21, he left France for the USA where he continued to paint and to make photographs. He also started to participate in some movies and was quickly offered several roles for plays and then for cinema.