Often, stage audiences were uncertain about his age, since he wore a black hairpiece to portray Sancho Panza and Cervantes's Manservant in "Man of La Mancha" on Broadway. At times it was rumored that he was well into his seventies when playing the role , but this was clearly untrue (
Richard Kiley, who played the dual role of
Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra and his fictional creation Don Quixote, was forty-three when he first played it).