Charo

Charo was born in the city of Murcia, Spain.[1] Her birth date has been a matter of some dispute (see 'Birth year controversy' below). Her Spanish passport gives her name as María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza.[3][note 1]

Charo has claimed she was enrolled in a convent school until the age of 15, when a nun told her that she belonged in show business.[9] In the most colorful version of her childhood, Charo's grandmother hired a music professor to give her weekly classical guitar lessons, and he became the first man to enter the convent.[10]

In a 2005 interview, she reminisced:

"The institution had great young teachers and students. Everything was a charity. Mr. Segovia, between concerts that's when he'd come, and if you'd been there a year and you weren't good, you'd go out and they would give your place to another young kid."[11]

Charo has stated in several interviews that she graduated with honors at age 16.[12][7]

Bandleader Xavier Cugat "discovered" her while in Spain filming a television special in 1964.[13] They wed on August 7, 1966. An April 1966 column by Earl Wilson on the couple's wedding plans announced:

"Sixty-year-old Xavier Cugat and his 20-year-old Spanish girlfriend and singing star Charo hope to marry in San Cugat, Spain, in a few days if Cugat can convince church authorities his two divorces should not be counted against him since he wasn't married in church."[14]

They were the first couple to be wed at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Charo later claimed that her marriage to Cugat was merely a business contract, a way for him to legally bring her to the United States.[15]

Charo was highly visible throughout the 1970s, appearing eight times on The Love Boat, and on variety and talk shows such as Donny & Marie,[28] Tony Orlando and Dawn,[29] The Captain and Tennille,[30] The John Davidson Show, The Mike Douglas Show (which she guest-hosted at least once)[31] and the short-lived The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.[32]

In 1975, Dallas Morning News critic Harry Bowman wrote that the ABC network had "penciled in . . . a half-hour comedy starring the uninhibited wife of Xavier Cugat" and commented, "This is probably the worst idea of the season."[33] By October of that year, Charo was promoting a TV special slated for November,[34] but it did not actually appear until May 1976.[35][36]

A TV listing for August 24, 1976 shows what appears to be an unsold pilot airing on ABC at 8:30 p.m. CST: "Charo and the Sergeant—Situation comedy starring Charo Cugat. Charo's first U.S. job is to be a dancer at an off-limits nightclub, and her conservative Marine Corps husband finds out. The few episodes that were taped ended up being broadcast on the American Armed Forces Network overseas."[37]

By the late 1970s, Charo was being mentioned as an example of how overexposure could damage a celebrity. One such article quoted the "Q score" of Performer Q, Steve Levitt's celebrity popularity rating service, to show that her popularity declined slightly even as her familiarity increased:

Before she gained national fame on talk shows in 1975, bosomy Latina starlet Charo was 'recognized' by 57 percent of Levitt's national television sample and had a 'popularity quotient' of 9 percent. Today, known by 80 percent, a figure as high as Clint Eastwood's 80 percent, Charo's popularity is 8 percent. 'If she was known by 100 percent of the world, chances are her popularity might go down to 7 or 6 percent,' Levitt says coolly. That paradox makes some performers think twice when invitations to talk shows come in.

— "The TV Talk Shows", The Washington Post July 14, 1977 (Style section, pg. B1)

Charo performing in 2004

She was named Best Flamenco Guitarist in Guitar Player Magazine's readers' poll twice.[38]

Charo returned to the dance-music scene in June 2008 with the single "España Cañi," which was released through Universal Wave Records.[39]

On March 1, 2017, Charo was revealed a contestant for Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars, paired with professional dancer Keo Motsepe.[40] On April 3, 2017, they were the second couple eliminated from the competition and finished in 11th place.

In 1977, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. That year, she filed for divorce from Cugat, which was granted on April 14, 1978.[41]

On August 11, 1978, she married her second husband, producer Kjell Rasten, in South Lake Tahoe, California.[42] He soon became her manager. They have one child, son Shel Rasten (born 1981),[43] who is the drummer for the heavy metal band Treazen. He is also an actor and producer, known for The Boulevard (2013), FAMOUS (and on the List) (2010) and CSI: Miami (2002)

They moved to Hawaii, but eventually moved back to Beverly Hills.[44]

Rasten died by suicide on February 18, 2019, at the age of 78. Charo publicly stated:

"In recent years, his health began to decline and he developed a rare and horrible skin disease called bullous pemphigoid. He also became very depressed. That, along with the many medications he needed to take, became too much for him, and he ended his suffering."[44]

• List of Spanish Americans
• Mononymous person
• Age fabrication

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charo.

• Official website
• Charo at IMDb
• Charo at AllMovie
• Charo at TV Guide
• "Charo Baeza" episode of El Tiempo Vivido (in Spanish), first broadcast on 7RM in Murcia, Charo's home town: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5