View source for José Miguel Agrelot

{{Short description|Puerto Rican comedian (1927–2004)}}
{{family name hatnote|Agrelot|Vilá|lang=Spanish}}
{{For|the arena which carries his name|José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2010}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = José Miguel Agrelot
| image         = Jose Miguel Agrelot Don Cholito.jpg
| alt           = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption       = Agrelot portraying his iconic character ''Don Cholito''
| birth_name    = Giuseppe Michael Agrelot Vilá
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1927|4|21}}
| birth_place   = [[Santurce, Puerto Rico]]
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|2004|01|28|1927|4|21}}
| death_place   = [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]]
| occupation    = {{hlist|Comedian|radio show host}}
| honors        = [[José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum]] {{small|(posthumous)}}
}}

'''Giuseppe Michael Agrelot Vilá''' (April 21, 1927 &ndash; January 28, 2004), also known as '''José Miguel Agrelot''' or '''Don Cholito''',<ref>Agrelot, José M., and LaTorre, Jossy, ''Encabuya y Vuelve y Tira''(autobiography), 2005</ref> was a Puerto Rican comedian, radio and television host.

==Biography==
Agrelot was born in [[Santurce, Puerto Rico]]. He was the third of four children of Felipe Antonio Agrelot Fittipaldi and Ana Luisa Vilá Cruz. His paternal grandparents were born in [[Lauria|Lauria, Italy]] and immigrated to Puerto Rico in 1892, two years before his father's birth.<ref>[https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/don-cholito-bio.htm Biografia de Jose Miguel Agrelot], [[El Nuevo Día]], January 29, 2004</ref><ref name="prpop">{{cite web | title=José Miguel Agrelot | website=Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular | url=https://prpop.org/biografias/jose-miguel-agrelot/ | access-date=2021-08-20|language=es}}</ref> His sister, Ana Luisa, a teacher, later became a part-time comedic actress as well. He started working on [[radio station]]s when he was 14. At that time, he was employed by radio entrepreneur [[Tomás Muñiz]], then the general manager of WIAC-AM and the father of later producer and actor [[Tommy Muñiz]]. During this period Agrelot developed his first comedic character, ''Torito Fuertes'', a mischievous eight-year-old for a family comedy show sponsored by [[Borden, Inc.]] and its [[evaporated milk]] (the name Torito Fuertes was a [[pun]] on "strong calf", a desirable consequence of drinking good milk). The character later took a life of his own on a radio show first named ''El Profesor Colgate'' (sponsored by [[Colgate-Palmolive]]'s flagship toothpaste) and later called ''El Colegio de la Alegría'' (''The School of Joy''). This program featured Tommy Muñiz as the schoolteacher of a rather dysfunctional classroom.

Apart from appearances in numerous commercials, Agrelot's credits in Puerto Rican television   included:

*''La Criada Malcriada'' (''The Rude Maid'')
*''El Especial de Corona'' (''The Corona Special'')
*''Desafiando a los Genios'' (''Challenging The Geniuses''), a personal favorite of [[Pablo Casals]]
*''Haciendo Historia'' (''Making History'')
*''El Show del Mediodia'' (''The Midday show'', as ''Don Cholito'', another legendary character of his)
*''Parece Increible'' (''It Seems Incredible'')
*''Ja ja, Ji ji, Jo jo con Agrelot''

== Exhibition boxing record ==
{{BoxingRecordSummary
|ko-wins= 1
|ko-losses=
|dec-wins=
|dec-losses=
}}
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!{{abbr|No.|Number}}
!Result
!Record
!Opponent
!Type
!Round, time
!Date
!Location
!Notes
|-
|1
|{{yes2}}Win
|1–0
|style="text-align:left;"|{{flagicon|USA}} [[Boxing career of Muhammad Ali|Muhammad Ali]]
|KO
|?
|Feb 6, 1976
|style="text-align:left;"|{{small|Cancha Pepin Cestero, [[Bayamón, Puerto Rico|Bayamón]], Puerto Rico}}
|style="text-align:left;"|
|}

==Comedic characters==
Agrelot created the following characters:

*''"Don Pulula"'', a mild mannered evangelical pastor with a proclivity for mild [[double entendre]]s (he modeled his voice after that of [[Rafael Quiñones Vidal]], a Puerto Rican television host),
*''"Mario Trauma"'', a crazed mental patient who constantly screamed in [[falsetto]] and was in reality saner than the people around him (he modeled his voice after a floor coordinator at WAPA-TV),
*''"Pasión"'', an [[old maid]] desperately looking for male company,
*''"Serafín Sin Fin y Sin Meta"'', an effeminate man with a heart-shaped [[birthmark]] in his cheek (while claiming that Serafín was not a [[Homosexuality|homosexual]] and never made a pass to anyone during the character's run, Agrelot faced protests from the local chapter of [[GLAAD]] and discontinued the character)
*''"Soldado Manteca"'', an inept [[Beetle Bailey]]-like character who was part of the [[United States Army]] (Agrelot described him once as Torito Fuertes, all grown up)
*''"Cerebrito Ligón"'', a man who claimed to be a [[Voyeurism|peeping Tom]] but wouldn't dare to peep. A famous episode had a young [[Alida Arizmendi]], later a Puerto Rican legislator, confronting him while he tried to sneak into an all-female [[gym]];
*''"Speedy González"'', an extremely fast gibberish-talking [[handyman]], who would always charge US$10.00 for his services (later increased to US$20.00 because of inflation). This character was a favorite of [[Benicio del Toro]]'s.
*''"Don Remigio Rodríguez y Rodriguez"'', an almost catatonic, extremely frank businessman (and the owner of ''Rodríguez y Rodriguez Sociedad en Comandita'') who had a proclivity for face gestures and sticking out his tongue. He had a standing feud with Joaquín, the [[Spain|Spanish]]-born store owner across the street (played by Spanish actor Ricardo Fabregues), to whom he constantly insulted (''"¡Joaquín, pillo!"'') Don Rodríguez later starred in [[Sunshine Logroño]]'s film, ''"Chona, La Puerca Asesina"''
*''El Juez'', a character modeled after [[Pigmeat Markham]] and [[Sammy Davis Jr.]]'s ''"Here Come Da Judge"'' character (more Davis's than Markham's) who had a huge mallet and would use it against a defendant's head if necessary during trials
*''Don Segismundo'', the mayor of Trujillo Bajo, a fictional municipality in Puerto Rico (Agrelot said once that Segismundo was actually Don Rodríguez y Rodríguez turned public servant)
*''"Pancho [[Matanzas]]"'', a Cuban immigrant that, as many did at the time, would sell anything to support himself and his family.
*''"Juan Macana"'', a not-very-bright [[police]] officer, PRPD badge number 13,378<ref>García, Beba, ¡Juan, Juan, Juan! Crónica de la televisión puertorriqueña en tiempos de don Tommy, p. 192</ref> who popularized in Puerto Rico a phrase Agrelot constantly heard in Mexico during one of his tours: ''"Sí, ¿cómo no?"'' ("Yeah, why not?")

Agrelot would also parody famous characters from film and cinema in his comedy program, "Ja Ja, Ji Ji, Jo Jo Con Agrelot". His most famous parody was that of [[Marlon Brando]] as [[Vito Corleone]] in [[The Godfather]] movie trilogy.

Agrelot appeared as Padre Ambrosio, a priest, in [[Jacobo Morales]]'s ''Dios Los Cria II''. He also played a serious dramatic role in a television miniseries, ''Nadie lo va a saber'', in 1991.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Puerto Rico|Biography|Television|radio|Comedy}}
*[[List of Puerto Ricans]]

==References==
#Exponen restos de Agrelot en funeraria Buxeda. San Juan, Puerto Rico: ''El Nuevo Día''. January 29, 2004.
<references/>

==External links==
*{{YouTube|Rfxg7JNV4EU|Excerpt from documentary about Agrelot's career and death}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070805021750/http://www.musicaboricua.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=DH-8241&Category_Code=Comedia Online Discography]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agrelot, Jose Miguel}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:Male actors from San Juan, Puerto Rico]]
[[Category:Puerto Rican male comedians]]
[[Category:Puerto Rican television hosts]]
[[Category:Puerto Rican male actors]]
[[Category:Puerto Rican people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:Puerto Rican radio personalities]]
[[Category:Puerto Rican television personalities]]
[[Category:Television pioneers]]
[[Category:20th-century Puerto Rican comedians]]
[[Category:20th-century Puerto Rican male actors]]