
Mario Ernesto Sánchez
Acting
Biography
Mario Ernesto Sánchez (born on January 10, 1947, in San Antonio de las Vegas, Cuba; † April 10, 2025, in Miami, Florida, USA) was a Cuban actor and theater founder. In 1979, he established Teatro Avante, a Hispanic theater in Florida, and became a significant figure in promoting Latin American theater in the United States. Sánchez played various supporting roles in Hollywood films and TV series, including Invasion U.S.A. (1985), The Specialist (1994), Bad Boys (1995), and Step Up Revolution (2012). He also appeared in five episodes of the series Miami Vice and had a role in the 2006 film of the same name. Additionally, he was featured in The Truman Show as a security guard and in the British cult series Only Fools and Horses as a Colombian drug lord. As a teenager, he emigrated to the United States through Operation Pedro Pan. Over the course of his career, he received several awards for his contributions to Hispanic theater, including the Federico García Lorca Award (1995) and the Ollantay Award (1994). Sánchez passed away on April 10, 2025, at the age of 78 in Miami.
Known For

The story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking and prostitution, centered on the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs - who first meet when Tubbs is undercover in a drug cartel.
Miami Vice

A formerly blacklisted spy uses his unique skills and training to help people in desperate situations.
Burn Notice

21 Jump Street revolves around a group of young cops who would use their youthful appearance to go undercover and solve crimes involving teenagers and young adults.
21 Jump Street

In a picture-perfect seaside town, an insurance salesman begins to realize that his entire existence may be staged and observed by a vast unseen audience as part of a long-running real-time reality TV show.
The Truman Show

Vinnie Terranova does time in a New Jersey penitentiary to set up his undercover role as an agent for the OCB (Organized Crime Bureau) of the United States. His roots in a traditional Italian city neighborhood form the underlying dramatic base throughout the series, bringing him into conflict with his conservative mother and other family members while acting undercover as syndicate enforcer.
Wiseguy

Marcus Burnett is a henpecked family man. Mike Lowrey is a footloose and fancy free ladies' man. Both Miami policemen, they have 72 hours to reclaim a consignment of drugs stolen from under their station's nose. To complicate matters, in order to get the assistance of the sole witness to a murder, they have to pretend to be each other.
Bad Boys

May Munro is a woman obsessed with getting revenge on the people who murdered her parents when she was still a girl. She hires Ray Quick, a retired explosives expert, to kill her parents' killers. When Ned Trent, embittered ex-partner of Quick's, is assigned to protect one of Quick's potential victims, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues.
The Specialist

A small, seemingly innocuous plastic reel of film leads surveillance specialist Tom Welles down an increasingly dark and frightening path. With the help of the streetwise Max, he relentlessly follows a bizarre trail of evidence to determine the fate of a complete stranger. As his work turns into obsession, he drifts farther and farther away from his wife, family and simple life as a small-town PI.
8MM

A case involving drug lords and murder in South Florida takes a personal turn for undercover detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. Unorthodox Crockett gets involved romantically with the Chinese-Cuban wife of a trafficker of arms and drugs, while Tubbs deals with an assault on those he loves.
Miami Vice

Emily arrives in Miami with aspirations to become a professional dancer. She sparks with Sean, the leader of a dance crew whose neighborhood is threatened by Emily's father's development plans.
Step Up Revolution

Moon Over Miami is a short-lived American comedy series that aired on ABC.
Moon Over Miami

A father comes to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding through the prism of multiple relationships within a big, sprawling Cuban-American family.
Father of the Bride

When Peter Bowman, an American engineer working in a South American country, is captured by anti-government forces, the rebels learn his identity and demand $5 million for his safe return. However, his US employer is on the verge of insolvency and will not provide the ransom. Peter's wife Alice is forced to deal with the matter on her own and she retains the services of freelance professional hostage negotiator Terry Thorne.
Proof of Life

A man who has failed as a father and husband commits a heist to make money for his fledging business, but things become complicated when his wife interferes.
Blood and Wine

A one-man army comes to the rescue of the United States when a spy attempts an invasion.
Invasion U.S.A.

A Cuban emigre, living in Miami and involved in an affair with the American seaman who rescued her and her daughter years earlier, must face her husband after he is unexpectedly released from a Cuban prison.
Fires Within

A detective duo hunts a criminal organization, which is using an unknown liquid explosive material.
Virtual Weapon

Hired to rescue escaped inmates, a Florida man is framed for a Cuban gangster's assassination.
Plato's Run

In this comedy thriller, a prospective series pilot, Larry Hagman plays a disinherited socialite and high roller who, with the aid of a comely con artist and his sarcastic butler, helps the feds bring down an arms merchant.
Staying Afloat

Undercover cop Doyle is working on a serial killer case that's left a trail of dead transvestites. Then, moonlighting as a private eye, Doyle and his girlfriend are hired by a rich young man to find his sister. The search leads to her mysterious uncle, and the possibility of becoming the killer's next victim.