Erik Estrada

Erik Estrada (born March 16, 1949) is a Puerto Rican actor who reached considerable fame as "Ponch" Poncharelo, a California Highway Patrol cop, on the 1977-1983 US television series "CHiPs".

Estrada became a teen idol during the era, appearing on the cover of Tiger Beat and other publications. This allegedly caused the jealousy of one of CHiPs' co-workers, and the series was cancelled after six seasons.

In the 1980s Estrada had little luck trying to get back into television or movies, but in the 1990s he made a comeback: He played Johnny, a Tijuana trucker, in the Televisa telenovela Dos Mujeres Un Camino. He earned one million dollars for that work and became famous again.

In 2001 he made a brief comeback, playing a principal in Hilary Duff's tv show, Lizzie McGuire. He has also had a regular role doing voice work for the Cartoon Network show Sealab 2021, which also gave him the opportunity to parody himself; for example, the show has several CHiPs homages in it, and his character Marco is played as a stereotypical Latin macho-man.

He is reportedly enjoying the fruits of his years working as an actor nowadays.