Raul Menendez actor Kamar de los Reyes dies aged 56
Black Ops 2/delosreyeskamar | InstagramRaul Menendez was one of the most iconic villains in the Call of Duty series, and a critical part of the storyline for the Black Ops series. Kamar de los Reyes, the actor whose likeness and voice was lent to the character, has died at age 56.
For many who grew up in the so-called “golden age” of Call of Duty, getting the game and jumping right into the campaign was a must. The CoD games were long held up as the bar every other game had to reach as a AAA blockbuster game with big set pieces and an intricately woven storylines.
One of the most iconic characters from the series was Raul Menendez, a villain who played a major role in the series and was even playable for one of the missions. Sure, hey may have been a villain, but the performance behind his character made him an incredibly charismatic and likeable villain that players grew attached to despite only being a main character in Black Ops 2.
Kamar de los Reyes, the man who brought Menendez to life, has passed at age 56 after a battle with cancer.
Kamar de los Reyes dead aged 56 after a battle with cancer
Kamar de los Reyes did a lot more than play the role of Menendez in Call of Duty. Whether it be his role as Antonio Vega in ‘One Life to Live’ and various other soap opera appearances to being in a stage production of Shakespeare’s, ‘The Tempest’, he’s been acting for decades in all sorts of genres.
However, even a decade after his last appearance in the Call of Duty franchise, his performance as series villain Raul Menendez stood out to fans of the series enough that they took to social media to remember his impeccable performance.
In a time before using motion capture for characters and hiring Hollywood actors for AAA game development was the standard, Reyes was one of the first actors to make a real impression with their performance. He really brought the character to life in a way that still holds up today.
Considering there’s an ending for Black Ops 2 where Menendez lives combined with the fact that the character came back in Black Ops 4 and was mentioned in Cold War, fans were hoping that his character would make a return.
However, it now seems that players want his performance to stand as it was rather than trying to bring the character back in the series in some way.
This isn’t the first instance of a massively influential video game actor dying in 2023, either, with the passing of Lance Reddick hitting the gaming community hard. In both cases, at least their performance can live on forever.