2/17 Lorenzo Lamas

Robert Conrad & Michael Horn Talk With Special Guest Lorenza Lamas!

Lorenzo de Santos-Lamas (born January 20, 1958) is an American actor and reality televisionparticipant. Lamas is known for playing Lance Cumson, the irresponsible grandson of Angela Channing (played by Jane Wyman) on the popular 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest, Reno Raines on the 1990s crime drama Renegade, and Hector Ramirez on the daytime soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful. Lamas also served as a judge on ABC television's short-lived reality show Are You Hot?. Presently, he stars in his own reality show, Leave it to Lamas, a series about his real-life family.

Lorenzo Lamas was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of the late Argentine actorFernando Lamas and Norwegian-American actress Arlene Dahl. He is the stepson of the swimming film starlet, Esther Williams, who married his father when Lorenzo was 11 years old. Williams is also the best friend of Lamas's series' star, the late Jane Wyman, who would later star together on Falcon Crest, twelve years before, after marrying his father on New Years Eve.^[1]Lamas was brought up in Pacific Palisades, California and moved to New York City in 1971, when he was 13 years old. He graduated from the Admiral Farragut Academy in Pine Beach, New Jersey, in 1975.

Longing to be an actor since the age of five, Lamas first studied acting in Tony Barr's Film Actors Workshop and quickly thereafter obtained his first TV acting role in 1976. He had a supporting role in the 1978 hit movie Grease.

In 1980, he auditioned for and won the role of Jane Wyman's playboy grandson and henchman, Lance Cumson, for the pilot of a new series entitled The Vintage Years. The pilot was later retooled to become the hit prime time drama series Falcon Crest. During a 2006 TV interview with Norwegian Television Team, Lamas said that to get the role on Falcon Crest, he'd auditioned twice and beat out five other guys for the part. During his stint on Falcon Crest, Lamas was nominated for two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Lamas was the only actor to appear in all 227 episodes of the series.

In 1984, Lamas was nominated for Worst Actor at the Golden Raspberry Awards for his performance in the movie Body Rock. Lamas also performed a song on the soundtrack for this movie, and the track "Fools Like Me" became his only single to date to crack the Billboard Hot 100 chart.^{[citation needed]}

In 1992, Lamas played the role of the falsely accused cop Reno Raines in the syndicated series Renegade. The series was seen in over 100 countries^{[citation needed]}, and during its final season, it moved from first-run syndication to the USA Network. The show ended in 1997 after a run of five seasons.

From February 2004 until February 2007 Lamas played the role of Hector Ramirez on the CBS daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.

In August 2007, Lamas starred as the King of Siam in The King and I at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine. That fall, he performed at Kean University Premiere Stages in Union, New Jersey in the title role in Steven Dietz's Dracula. Lamas performed as El Gallo in The Fantasticks at the Casa Mañana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas in June 2008. In June 2009, Lamas returned to the Ogunquit Playhouse as Zach in A Chorus Line.

Lamas began appearing in the Zaxby's restaurant chain television advertisements in May 2008.

In 2008, Lamas appeared in season 2 of CMT's Gone Country.

In 2009, he starred in the Asylum's Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus as Alan Baxter, a government agent who wants to destroy both the Mega Shark and the Giant Octopus to protect the world from their destructive fights.

Lamas now stars as himself in Leave it to Lamas, a reality show that focused on his own real-life family on E!