Charo

Her family knows her as María del Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza de Rasten. But you can call her Charo. A singer, dancer, actress and comedian, Charo has been a fixture on television and on the nightclub stage for 30 years. All you have to hear is that bubbly “Cuchi-Cuchi!” and you know it’s her. Born in Murcia, Spain, Charo was a teenager when she met and married the 66-year-old Latin bandleader Xavier Cougat, who featured her – shimmying, shaking, provocative outfits and all – in his stage act (they were wed at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas). By 1978, six years after they’d married, Charo and Cougat parted; she obtained American citizenship that same year and began her climb to ubiquitous television stardom, appearing with regularity on “The Love Boat,” “The Tonight Show,” “The Mike Douglas Show” and other pop culture staples where her disarming cuteness, innate sexiness and adorably mangled English never failed to draw attention. Today, she’s best known for her Sprint commercials and a memorable recent stint on “The Surreal Life” for VH1. In Vegas, however, Charo continues to pack ‘em in. A leetle-known fact about the cuchi-cuchi girl: For several years in a row, Guitar Player Magazine named her “Best Flamenco Guitarist” in its Readers’ Poll. Under all the naughty outfits, makeup and cascades of yellow hair, Charo is a first-class musician who actually studied under the Spanish master guitarist Andres Segovia. At the 1995 Billboard International Music Awards, she was given the prize for Female Pop Album of the Year,” for her album “Guitar Passion.”