Mexican character actor Sergio Calderón, best known for playing the “head on a stick” in 1997’s “Men in Black” and Capt. Vallenueva in 2007’s “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End,” died this morning surrounded by family, according to his spokesperson. Calderón was 77.
Although the cause of death was not publicized at press time, Calderón was previously in the hospital with a bout of pneumonia.
The actors’ other notable credits include Sergio Leone’s “Duck, You Sucker!” (1971), in which Calderón played a Mexican revolutionary. Additionally, in John Huston’s “Under the Volcano” (1984), he played a violent Mexican chief of police opposite Albert Finney.
On the television side, Calderón starred on the debut episode of NBC’s “The A-Team” in 1983, where he made a guest appearance as the flamboyant bandit Malavida Valdése. He later returned to the show in its third season as the river pirate El Cajón (translating to “The Coffin”) in 1984.
Calderón was born on July 21, 1945. At the age of 10, he relocated from his tropical village to Mexico City, where he enrolled in the Instituto Andrés Soler of the Asociación Nacional de Actores. He made his first onscreen appearance in “The Bridge in the Jungle” (1970), which was directed by Huston.
The actor is survived by his wife, Karen Dakin, his children Patrick Calderón-Dakin and Johanna Calderón-Dakin (the latter of whom is vice president of PR firm The Mesulam Group), his son-in-law Raaj and his grandchildren Krishnaavi, Emiliano and Victoria.
The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news.