R.I.P., ‘El Mariachi’ Star Peter Marquardt
Peter Charles Marquardt, an actor and video-game producer who played the drug kingpin villain in El Mariachi and appeared in other Robert Rodriguez films as well, died in Austin July 19, at the age of 50, an Austin funeral home has confirmed. Marquardt also appeared in Rodriguez’s films Desperado and Spy Kids 3D: Game Over, as well as several short films. Separately, he was voice talent and an associate producer for Austin-based ION Storm on several video games, most notably Deus Ex in 2000 and Wing Commander IV in 1996, and was co-producer on one game, Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3.
A funeral director at Cook-Walden/Forest Oaks Funeral Home and Memorial Park in Austin confirmed that Marquardt had died but had no other information. Cook-Walden’s website said funeral arrangements are pending. No information on the cause of death was immediately available and Austin police could not be reached.
Marquardt met Rodriguez while they were participating in a drug study and were bunk mates. Rodriguez was participating in the study to raise money for 1992′s El Mariachi, his first film, famously shot for a little more than $7,000. Marquardt played Mauricio, the drug gang kingpin whose crew mistakes El Mariachi, the guitarist played by Carlos Gallardo, as an assassin. Later, Marquardt (who did not speak Spanish), showed up in a flashback of that role in Rodriquez’s 1995 big-budget sequel Desperado, starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek.
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