Rick Gonzalez
Rick Gonzalez is an actor, born 1979.
2005 was the year. Rick Gonzalez played Timo Cruz in Coach Carter, Naps in Roll Bounce and Vincent in War of the Worlds inside twelve months, which is about as good a run as a young character actor gets. Cruz is still the part people quote.
Before that he had done the standard apprenticeship, and the credit names tell the story: Gang Banger in Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, Primo in Biker Boyz, Rudy Bonilla in The Rookie, Spanish in Old School. Years of being cast for a type before anyone let him play a person.
Television gave him the sustained work. Ben Gonzalez on Reaper, then Rene Ramirez, the vigilante Wild Dog, on Arrow from 2016 to 2020, Nunez in Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, and Detective Bobby Reyes on Law & Order: Organized Crime. Genre television has been the steadiest employer of his career, and he is good in it precisely because he underplays where the format expects volume.
The films worth finding sit in the middle of the list. Illegal Tender, Pride and Glory, First Snow, In the Valley of Elah, The Promotion. Small pictures where he is asked to be a specific young man rather than a category. He recently voiced Torres in Predator: Killer of Killers.
Movies (18)
- War of the Worlds (2005)
- Old School (2003)
- Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)
- Coach Carter (2005)
- The Rookie (2002)
- Pulse (2006)
- Biker Boyz (2003)
- Roll Bounce (2005)
- Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001)
- The Guilt Trip (2012)
- Pride and Glory (2008)
- In the Valley of Elah (2007)
- Laurel Canyon (2003)
- Illegal Tender (2007)
- Make Your Move (2013)
- First Snow (2006)
- The Promotion (2008)
- November Rule (2015)
TV (7)
Where to start with Rick Gonzalez
Coach Carter, obviously, and there is no reason to be contrarian about it. Cruz is the emotional spine of the film and Gonzalez gets its most quoted scene.
Roll Bounce is the underrated one, a warm roller-skating comedy that gives him room to be funny, and it pairs well with Old School if you want the comic register.
For television, Arrow is the longest run and Wild Dog is solid ensemble work across the show's later years, while Reaper is the odder and funnier series. Law & Order: Organized Crime is the current job.
The serious film work is worth a detour: Pride and Glory is the meatiest thing here, and War of the Worlds is the biggest film he has been in.