Spring 2025

ing him the opportunity to portray a Hispanic man in a positive light—and in a position of authority—something seldom seen on television at that time. And, other than Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo on “I Love Lucy” (which debuted almost 30 years prior), Estrada was the first Hispanic actor to breakthrough in a leading role on a hit television series, breaking ground and making way for generations of actors to follow. The beauty of his rise to fame in a role as a police officer was that, from the tender age of four, his career plan had been to be a New York City cop. “My dad was stuck on the needle when I was 4 years old,” says Estrada,“so she [his mother] fired him and started dat- ing a cop, so my first hero was a police officer.” Upon his high school gradua- tion, he planned to join the police academy, but his interest in a classmate introduced him to a whole new world and changed his life’s trajectory. It was “a pretty girl named Christine La- porte,” he shares, whom he tried to meet by waiting around after school. He waited for her day after day, but she never came out of the building. On the third day he followed her after their last period and found that she was going to drama club, so he went too, “So I thought, ‘I grew up in the streets 110 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 5 Photo: Shutterstock Editorial With costars Bibi Gaytán and Laura León. Not a native Spanish speaker, Estrada learned the language for his role on the Televisa series “Dos Mujeres, un Camino.” Photo: Courtesy of the Estrada Family Once in Hollywood, Estrada went from a job washing Rolls-Royces to owning three of his own after his quick rise to stardom. He is a lover of fine automobiles and often visits Pebble Beach during the Concours d’Elegance.