Character page for the 1990-1993 Zorro series.
Played By: Duncan Regehr
Dubbed By: Mario Castañeda (Latin American Spanish), Patrick Laval (European French)
The son of noble Alejandro de la Vega, who returned from the university in Madrid on his father's behalf. After returning, he found that the alcalde was levying huge taxes on the poor and jailing anyone who tried to stop him. Diego realized very quickly that he had to do something, but that he must work anonymously. Hearing Sgt. Mendoza talk about how a soldier's greatest enemy is fear and that the unknown causes fear. Diego was inspired by a fox he sees in the cave adjacent to the de la Vega hacienda. He reflected on the fox's cunning and how the fox is hunted for its fur but still manages to survive. He created Zorro and began fighting oppression.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: As with most previous adaptations since 1920's The Mark of Zorro, he favors a sword.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Dark-haired, handsome, and quite possibly the tallest version of Zorro as his actor is around 6 feet 5 inches tall.
Played By: Patrice Martinez (credited as Patrice Camhi initially)
Zorro's ongoing love interest, who is a very outspoken, independent woman. She runs the pueblo's tavern.
- Action Girl: She is fiercely outspoken, independent, and can pack a mean punch.
- Damsel in Distress: She has to be saved by Zorro when she gets in over her head.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Not knowing that Diego and Zorro are the same person, she's not interested in de la Vega at all... until some other girls come closer to him.
Played By: Michael Tylo
Ruthless (but not too bright), Ramone is obsessed with money. His ambitions are to further his political career and societal status.
- Character Catchphrase: "The Ramones do not serve anyone". Hilariously, every time he says it, he's forced to be a slave of a particular episode's villain within the next few seconds.
- Death by Irony: He finally unmasked Zorro when he wanted to give him a hand and save from a fall. Ramone stripped him of the mask instead of accepting the help and fell off to his death.
- Freudian Excuse: In the multi-part episode “The Legend Begins”, when Sergeant Mendoza expressed concern that the Alcalde was being too rough on the peasants, Ramone angrily revealed that he was the youngest of his family, and often got the short stick of attention and respect from his father. He is obsessed with making a lot more money than his older brothers so he can gain the respect of his father.
- Greed: He's obsessed with money, often raises taxes, and creates new ones. He does have some understandable reasons for his greed, however.
- Mayor Pain: Alcalde is Spanish for Mayor. He's something of a mixture of the Wilkins and Quimby variants; he's somewhat cowardly and borderline incompetent, but he could be ruthless when pressed.
- Ungrateful Bastard: He offered Zorro amnesty for exchange of fencing lessons (to defeat villain of the episode) but did not keep his word. Zorro was not surprised at all.
Played By: James Victor
Dubbed By: Philippe Dumat (European French)
- Be Careful What You Wish For: As we can see in the first season, his dream was always to become an alcalde. Unfortunately, when he was forced to act as mentioned between the time of Ramone's death and Soto's arrival (in the first episode of season four) he begged God to finish it quickly.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Sergeant García, as the quite obese and dorky sidekick of the show's main villain.
Played By: Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (season 1), Henry Darrow (seasons 2-4)
Don Diego's father and a respected citizen of the pueblo. He takes an active role in the local politics and never hesitates to speak his mind whenever an injustice has been committed. He is a friend to the poor and tries to help the poor whenever he can.
Played By: Juan Diego Botto
A young mute boy who lives with Don Alejandro and Don Diego at the de la Vega hacienda. Both of his parents were killed by an explosion during a military battle. Felipe received a blow to the neck from the debris caused by the explosion. This blow to the neck as well as the psychological shock from the loss of his parents are the probable causes of Felipe losing the ability to speak. Felipe has pretended for many years to be not only mute but deaf as well. Diego is the only person who knows Felipe's secret. Likewise, Felipe is the only person who knows Diego's secret.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A mute and loyal servant to Diego de la Vega? He's this series' version of Bernardo.
- The Speechless: Due to childhood trauma.
Played By: J. G. Hertzler (credited as John Hertzler)
A ruthless man, and Diego's former colleague from the university. He arrives to Los Angeles after Ramone's tragic death as a new alcalde.
- Face Death with Dignity: When he's to be executed by Emissary Risendo, De Soto refused a blindfold for this reason.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's so cruel that he was able to put a child in jail and threaten to whip him if he didn't reveal the location of Zorro's cave, but in the series finale he saved Diego's life without any hesitation by shooting de La Vega's evil brother, Gilberto Resendo. Of course, De Soto had every reason to hate Gilberto, considering Gilberto had seized control of Los Angeles and even had De Soto imprisoned earlier, so
it's possible he simply seized a perfect opportunity to kill his enemy, and even look heroic while doing so. To his credit however he expressed a need to see the Padre afterwards. - Self-Made Man: According to Diego, Ignacio's parents were very poor and he got everything he has by sheer talent and hard work.
Played By: Daniel Craig
- Butt-Monkey: Gets his ass handed to him in humiliating fashion whenever he fights Zorro.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Gets killed off very early in the final arc of the series..
