Cal Bellini

Cal Bellini (born Khalid Ibrahim on June 6, 1935) is a former actor, a Malay originally from Singapore, who was cast in roles of mostly foreigners, Native Americans, or ethnic minorities, primarily on American television between 1960 and 1986. ^[1]

Bellini's first role was as the physician Motilal Mookerji in the 1960 CBS summer series, Diagnosis: Unknown, a nine-episode program starring Patrick O'Neal as a crime-solving pathologist at a large hospital. His costars on the series included Phyllis Newman as Doris Hudson and Martin Huston as the handyman, Link. During the 1960s, he made a few appearances on such series as Flipper, Coronet Blue, and Dan August, starring Burt Reynolds, in which he played a character named Jose in the 1970 episode "The Murder of a Small Town".^[1]

In 1971, he appeared as Lt. Fernando Mercado in the episode "Escape" of Raymond Burr's second serie, Ironside on NBC. From 1970-1972, he appeared in different roles in three episodes of ABC's The Mod Squad police drama. Other roles followed on The F.B.I. (in the episode "Night of the Long Knives"),^[2] Marcus Welby, M.D., Barnaby Jones, Hawaii Five-O, The Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, Little House on the Prairie, The Rockford Files, and Kung Fu. On Young Dan'l Boone, a four-episode CBS series in 1977, Bellini played an Indian called Red Eagle in the segment "The Salt Licks".^[1]

Bellini's film roles included those of Younger Bear in Dustin Hoffman's western, Little Big Man (1970),^[3] and as Cross Otter in The Mountain Men (1980), starring Charlton Heston and Brian Keith, filmed near Jackson, Wyoming.^[4]

He played Run Run Li in the 1982 episode "The Warlord" of the Bruce Boxleitner adventure series Bring 'Em Back Alive, loosely based on the career of professional hunter Frank Buck. Bellini's last small screen appearance was as Tommy Lemanna in the 1986 episode "The Frankie Kahana Show" of the NBC detective series, Riptide.^[1]

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