A Martinez Bio
Adolfo Larrue Martínez III, known professionally as A Martinez, is an American actor and singer whose career has stretched across theater, television and film for more than five decades. Born on September 27, 1948, in Glendale, California, he is widely recognized for his long-running role as Cruz Castillo on the NBC daytime drama Santa Barbara, a part he held from 1984 to 1992 that helped define his public image. Over the years he has built a steady presence on both daytime and primetime television, and he continues to take on new projects while also working on film.
Beyond his daytime fame, Martinez has been a familiar face in primetime dramas and feature films, including Longmire, Dark Winds, L.A. Law, Profiler, The Cowboys, Powwow Highway, Curse of Chucky, Ambulance and Far Haven. His mixed Mexican, Apache, Piegan Blackfeet and Northern European heritage has shaped the range of characters he brings to the screen, from ranch hands and lawmen to doctors and detectives.
Early Life and Background
A Martinez was born Adolfo Larrue Martínez III in Glendale, California, and raised in the nearby Sunland and Tujunga neighborhoods of Los Angeles. His family gave him the nicknames A, Little Adolfo and Little A during childhood so he could be told apart from his father and grandfather, who shared earlier versions of his name. Over time, the simple letter A became the name he carried forward into his professional life.
His heritage blends Mexican and Apache roots on his father’s side with Piegan Blackfeet and Northern European ancestry on his mother’s side, a background that has informed many of the characters he has played. He attended Sunland Elementary School and Mt. Gleason Junior High School, where he played Kiwanis youth softball each summer and developed a reputation as a strong pitcher. He also starred in numerous school musical productions, an early sign of the performing path he would later follow.
Martinez graduated from Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga, where he played in a rock band and ran on the track team. After high school he intended to study political science at UCLA, but he eventually turned his attention to acting instead. The shift set the course for a working life built on stage and screen rather than in another field.
Path to Acting
Martinez began his professional career in 1968, the same year he finished his formal education. His first notable screen appearance came in 1970, when he played the stable hand Luis, who aids Little Joe, in the Bonanza episode Gideon the Good. That same year he appeared in the Adam-12 episode Log 114: The Hero, giving him early experience in both classic western and police drama formats.
Through the early 1970s he built a steady run of guest spots across the television landscape. He appeared on All in the Family as a helper at Archie Bunker’s bar, in the Hawaii Five-O episode A Bullet for El Diablo, in the short-lived ABC police drama Nakia, and in the Columbo episode A Matter of Honor, where he played a novice bullfighter. In 1972 he landed his first feature-film role in The Cowboys, starring alongside John Wayne, a credit that helped establish him in Hollywood.
He followed that with parts in Starbird and Sweet William (1973), Once Upon a Scoundrel (1974), Joe Panther (1976) and Shoot the Sun Down (1978), and he took on a role in the 1978 miniseries Centennial. The late 1970s and early 1980s brought guest spots on Quincy M.E. and Barney Miller, a turn in Falcon Crest as a grape picker, and a season on the 1983 to 1984 series Whiz Kids. These roles sharpened his range and prepared him for the long-running daytime work that would soon make him a household name.
A Martinez Career
Early Career (1968 to 1984)
During his early years in Hollywood, Martinez balanced feature films with steady guest work on television. After The Cowboys in 1972, he continued to land varied parts in movies such as The Honorary Consul (1983) and Walking the Edge (1985), while building a long list of one-off appearances across popular series. The mix of westerns, police shows and dramas helped him grow comfortable in many genres.
He also found time to play on a semi-pro baseball team for five seasons after college, a period that kept him connected to the sport he had loved since his youth-league days in Sunland. The discipline of competitive athletics carried over into his acting, and he continued to take on stage work as well, including a 2014 run in Othello at the Odyssey Theatre in west Los Angeles.
Breakthrough (1984 to 1992)
The turning point of his career arrived in 1984, when he was cast as Cruz Castillo on the NBC daytime drama Santa Barbara, a role he played from 1984 to 1992. Cruz became one of the signature characters of the series, and the part earned Martinez his widest audience yet. The role opened doors in primetime, including starring parts on series such as Profiler and L.A. Law.
His film work in this stretch included Powwow Highway (1989) and She-Devil (1989), both of which gave him a chance to reach audiences beyond daytime viewers. Santa Barbara remained his anchor through the end of the 1980s, and when it ended in 1992 he had already established himself as a reliable leading man across formats.
From September 2008 to June 2009, he returned to daytime as Ray Montez on the ABC drama One Life to Live. He then joined The Bold and the Beautiful in February 2011 as Dr. Ramon Montgomery, returning for additional episodes in January 2012. These appearances kept him closely tied to the soap genre that had shaped his career.
Notable Works and Milestones
Beyond Santa Barbara, his most recognized later works include the recurring role of Jacob Nighthorse on Longmire starting in 2012, the part of Sheriff Gordo Sena on Dark Winds from 2023 onward, and guest turns on The Night Shift and Queen of the South, where he played Sheriff Mayo in 2017. He joined the cast of Days of Our Lives in September 2015 as Eddie Hernandez, a part he held through 2017 before returning in 2020. In June 2022 he was cast as Master Pakku in the Netflix live-action series Avatar: The Last Airbender, extending his reach into major streaming productions. His more recent film credits include Curse of Chucky (2013), Ambulance (2022) and Far Haven (2023).
A Martinez Award Nominations
Over the course of his career, A Martinez has earned nominations across several ceremonies tied to both daytime television and independent film. His work on long-running soap operas and his independent projects have brought him recognition from voting bodies that follow the genre closely, and his body of nominations reflects his steady presence on television since the early 1970s.
A Martinez Awards Won
A Martinez has collected a range of awards that span daytime television and independent film. Among the honors attached to his name are a Daytime Emmy Award, a Red Nation Film Award of Excellence, a Best Supporting Actor award at the Red Dirt International Film Festival for his own written short film Four Winds, and three recognitions from the Soap Opera Digest Awards. These wins highlight his impact on both the soap opera community and the independent film circuit.
A Martinez Family
Martinez has been married twice and is the father of three children. He was briefly married in 1981 to actress Mare Winningham, who had also appeared in the 1978 miniseries The Young Pioneers; they divorced later that same year. In 1982 he married Leslie Bryans, with whom he has a son and two daughters.
He moved from Malibu to Thousand Oaks, California, in 2014, settling in a community where he has continued to live and work. Family ties, including his mixed Mexican, Apache, Piegan Blackfeet and Northern European ancestry, have remained an important part of his personal identity.
Personal Life
Outside of his career in acting and singing, A Martinez has maintained a relatively private personal life centered on his family in Southern California. His marriages to Mare Winningham and later to Leslie Bryans have been his only publicly known long-term relationships, and he is a father of three. After decades in the entertainment industry, he continues to balance new roles in film and television with time at home in Thousand Oaks.