Years later he's still double-dipping: Vasquez, 40, has been appearing as Gunnery Sgt. Victor Galindez on JAG and as Supreme Court law clerk Miguel Mora on the CBS drama First Monday. "He's one of those guys that the camera really loves," says First's Joe Mantegna.
Vasquez hasn't always felt so in demand. After his parents divorced in 1966, he and his older brother shuttled between their homes in Escondido, Calif., and rural North Carolina, where the boys were taunted about their Mexican-American heritage. "It was excruciating," he says. "I wanted to belong." As a young actor, race remained an issue. "It was just drug dealers and gang members," says Vasquez of the roles he was offered. "It's still a WASPish industry." His break came in 1998 with Love Boat: The Next Wave; JAG followed in '99.
Still recovering from a romantic breakup last fall, Vasquez, who lives in West Hollywood, spends his free time producing documentaries on Latino civil rights. He also takes pride in dispelling the occasional stereotype. When a recent First Monday scene called for him to go dancing, he surprised producers by confessing that he couldn't salsa. "Hey," he says with a grin, "I know lots of Latinos who can't dance."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
