Ricardo Montalban, one of Hollywood’s first Latino leading men whose fame perhaps owes most to his role as the debonair concierge of “Fantasy Island,” died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 88.

On “Fantasy Island,” shown on ABC from 1978 to 1984, visitors flew to a Pacific resort and were greeted by their dream facilitators, the suavely welcoming Mr. Roarke, played by Montalban, and his assistant, an irrepressible dwarf named Tattoo, played by Herve Villechaize. They became one of TV’s most legendary odd couples.

Though Mr. Roarke became Montalban’s signature role, it was a mere bump in the timeline of a career that spanned decades, media and genres.

His reputation as smooth Latin seducer — and a parodist of a smooth Latin seducer — was capsulized in a mid-1970s TV ad in which he purred over the Chrysler Cordoba, including seats upholstered in “soft Corinthian leather.” The phrase became a campy giggle-inducer, especially after it became known that there is no such thing.

Another memorable role began in 1967, during the first season of “Star Trek,” when Montalban guest starred as Khan Noonien Singh, a tyrannical superhuman villain. He reprised the role in the 1982 film “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

In recent years, he found work in children’s entertainment, appearing in “Spy Kids” movies and voicing characters on the TV series “Dora the Explorer” and in the 2006 film “The Ant Bully,” in which he played the leader of an ant colony’s council.