Germán Valdés
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Germán Valdés (September 19, 1915 - June 29, 1973), better known as Tin-Tan, was a Mexican actor, singer and comedian. He often displayed the pachuco dress and employed pachuco slang in many of his movies, some with his brothers Manuel "El Loco" Valdes and Ramón Valdés. He made the language of the Mexican American Pachucos famous in Mexico. A "caló" based in Spanglish, it was a mixture of Spanish and English in speech based on that of Mexican immigrants.
He usually acted with his "Carnal" (sidekick), Marcelo Chavez, who also accompanied Tin Tan with a guitar. He was a very important figure during his golden years of movie making, from 1949. His 1953 movie, Calabacitas tiernas, a comedy, was chosen as one of the best in Mexican cinema.
He has the record of having kissed the most actresses in his career, some of them the beauties of their day. Some of his co-stars were Marga López and Rosita Quintana.
He was also one of several people who were originally intended to be on the front cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band but were ultimately excluded. He requested that Ringo swap him for a Mexican Tree, and he did.
[edit] Quotes
Illustrating codeswitching wordplay: Hey vato, how do you say "window" in English? (window appears verbatim in the original quote in Spanish).
He also was the voice of Baloo the bear in the Spanish translation of the Disney film "The Jungle Book".
