Luis Contreras

Tall lean and wiry 6foot4 EuroIndigenous Latino American character actor The son of EuroIndigenous Latino American character actor Roberto Contreras Luis Contreras was born on September 18 1950 Lean and wiry often sporting a mass of curly hair and drooping mustache with his piercing dark eyes and angular face Contreras ranged between portraying various criminals and police officers Contreras made his film debut as a Federale in Steven Spielbergs wonderful science fiction classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind He also popped up as a zoot suiter in Spielbergs hilarious allstar comedy 1941 Contreras frequently acted in movies for director Walter Hill The Long Riders 48 HRSExtreme Prejudice Red Heat Geronimo An American Legend and Last Man Standing Contreras was especially memorable as a grocery store security guard in the cult classic scifi black comedy Repo Man the vicious ringleader of a gang of cocaine cowboys in Stand Alone a hostile eyepatched biker in the delightfully madcap Peewees Big Adventure and a deranged homeless man who terrorizes a trio of teenage girls in the A Night on the Town episode of the hugely enjoyable horror anthology After Midnight Contreras also did guest appearances on the TV shows CHiPs Quincy ME TJ Hooker Knight Rider Riptide Hill Street Blues Simon Simon Night Court Hunter Matlock and Carnivale regularly working through the 1970s and 1980s Luis Contreras died of cancer at the tragically young age of 53 on June 20 2004