José Natividád Domínguez Vacio (September 8, 1912 – May 30, 1996) was an American character actor and musician.
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Early life
Vacío was born to Mexican parents in El Paso, Texas in 1912, and was raised in Pasadena, California. He befriended George Reeves while the two were classmates at Pasadena Junior College. Reeves loved to hear "Nati", Vacío's nickname, sing and play his guitar. Reeves asked Nati to show him how to play. Reeves was a quick learner and both of them would play and sing Mexican songs, all the time. The two both took acting lessons at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Vacío served in the US Army during World War II, reaching the rank of Corporal.
Career
Vacío's debut came in a 1950 episode of The Lone Ranger called "Dead Man's Chest". He was featured in a pivotal role in The Hitch-Hiker (1953), a film noir directed by Ida Lupino. Many of his roles were in Westerns, although he had a diverse career. For example, he played a character called "Frank Smith" who was the family gardener in five episodes of the suburban sitcom Father Knows Best (the character—and therefore the Andersons—pronounced his first name as "Frahnk," so the credits generally spelled it phonetically as "Fronk"). He appeared alongside his friend George Reeves on Adventures of Superman, playing the role of a Mexican police inspector in the 1958 episode "The Brainy Burro".
The majority of his work was in television, with an occasional movie role. Perhaps the highest-profile film in which he appeared was The Magnificent Seven (1960), portraying "Miguel", one of the Mexican townspeople trying to defend their farming village from a band of outlaws. In 1988, he appeared in the Robert Redford film The Milagro Beanfield War (1988) where he portrayed "Onofre", a man with one arm, who said his arm was eaten off by butterflies. He was one of the four men they called the "senile brigade".
Personal life
Vacío was married to Henriqueta (Queta) Vacío.
Death
He died in Burbank, California, aged 83, on 30 May 1996.
Media portrayals
Vacío is a minor character in the film Hollywoodland (2006), a film about George Reeves' life and death. He is portrayed by Diego Fuentes.
