Cover Story
Text Jesús Triviño Alarcón Images Yolanda Perez
Kamar de los Reyes is drunk off his ass. He's taking swigs of a bottle of liquor, lighting cigarette after cigarette as the angry waves of the Gulf of Mexico get harder and harder. In his inebriated condition he struggles to maintain his seat on Cuba's El Malecón but the waves are too overbearing. They're beating him like NYPD's finest on an unarmed man. Yet, he doesn't seem to care. The boricua/cubano actor hasn't lost his way but his character, Tomás, in his film, Love & Suicide, is near a moribund state. As melancholy mood music is the backdrop, Tomás sinks deeper and deeper. He gets up, now wobbling as he continues to take another shot of his potion. His eyes as red as the Communist star, Tomás' body may be on Earth but his soul has gone away on a hellish journey.
Text Jesús Triviño Alarcón Images Yolanda Perez
Kamar de los Reyes is drunk off his ass. He's taking swigs of a bottle of liquor, lighting cigarette after cigarette as the angry waves of the Gulf of Mexico get harder and harder. In his inebriated condition he struggles to maintain his seat on Cuba's El Malecón but the waves are too overbearing. They're beating him like NYPD's finest on an unarmed man. Yet, he doesn't seem to care. The boricua/cubano actor hasn't lost his way but his character, Tomás, in his film, Love & Suicide, is near a moribund state. As melancholy mood music is the backdrop, Tomás sinks deeper and deeper. He gets up, now wobbling as he continues to take another shot of his potion. His eyes as red as the Communist star, Tomás' body may be on Earth but his soul has gone away on a hellish journey.
Ironically as Tomás struggles with his inner demons, de los Reyes' acting career reads damn near heavenly compared to other actors. His thespian skills have grown quite a bit since he was a little trumpeter growing up in Las Vegas, NV. There wasn't a lot to do for kids in "Sin City" during the '70s. But being the son of Walfredo de los Reyes Jr., a drummer/percussionist, comes with its coolness factors. What other snot-nosed kid gets a chance to meet legendary Vegas acts like Ben Vereen, Charo, Rich Little, Paul Anka, Tony Bennett and Wayne Newton? Not much.
"My grandfather [Walfredo de los Reyes] and his brother founded Orquesta Casino de la Playa," says de los Reyes, 39. "They started it in the living room where my father was born in Cuba. Some of the most famous soneros and mambo singers came from that orchestra. They were intense musicians. My grandfather gave me my first trumpet when I was 3. I started playing when I was 4."
The wunderkind, through the help of his father, appeared on the same stage as musical greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Harry James and Maynard Ferguson. Kamar continued to blow until the age of 15, then the unfortunate passing of his grandfather completely stunted his musical growth.
"I lost el animo. He was my idol growing up. When he passed away I was disillusioned and put [the trumpet] down to never picked it up again," remembers de los Reyes. "Once in a while I start thinking about playing again but I just don't see myself doing it. My nine-year-old son has expressed some interest so maybe he'll follow in those footsteps."
While his son might follow the family legacy, (de los Reyes' older brothers Daniel and Wally Jr. are musicians as well) he might also follow his father's career. On a L.A. trip to visit his brother, who was playing percussion in a (don't laugh) Cher music video for "We All Sleep Alone," de los Reyes was cast as one of its dancers. His footwork landed him in Salsa and the television version of Dirty Dancing. Although his good looks got him dancing roles he also went through the actors' rites of passage. He waited tables, bartended, fixed roofs and laid down carpet-all for the sake of maintaining the dream of being on stage. Then in 1994, while he was on a syndicated show, Valley of the Dolls, he got a call that would energize his career. Tony Award-winning director and playwright, George C. Wolfe, called him to cast him as a gay Irish-Mexican boxer in New York's Public Theatre's production of Blade to the Heat. The play led to critical acclaim for de los Reyes and a reawakening.
"So I came to New York and it was like getting hit by a brick," he says. "I was at the Public Theatre with George C. Wolfe and this was the real shit. It was kind of like a slap in the face to wake up. It was no longer about looking good. It was about developing a craft. I dug my teeth into it and I did the play and I gave up doing anything and everything else to focus on my acting. Slowly but surely within six months it started taking off."
With inspiration on his side, the San Juan, PR native started booking work on ER, New York Undercover, Touched By An Angel and another Wolfe production, The Tempest. Grinding as hard as possible eventually landed him the role he's most revered for-policeman Antonio Vega on ABC's One Life to Live. Ironically, the casting agent knew Kamar was in New York and hired him based on a videotape of a prior audition. And ultimately, landing a career that would span over the course of a decade on the popular soap.more info go to: http://www.morofilms.com/
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