Who Is Kamar De Los Reyes? Daredevil: Born Again Tribute Explained

After years of anxious anticipation, fans are finally diving into the Marvel Cinematic Universe's new take on Daredevil. The early reactions to "Daredevil: Born Again" have all said the same thing: Fans think the show is incredible, and they love the new characters that the first season has introduced.

Sadly, one of those characters won't be seen again. Episode 2 contains an emotional message that is displayed right after the Marvel Television logo: "In Loving Memory of Kamar de los Reyes." In the show, Reyes plays the White Tiger, an important character who Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) represents in court during a contentious trial. Reyes sadly died in December 2023, long before fans ever got to see his take on the Marvel superhero.

In our review of "Daredevil: Born Again," we praised the show up and down for continuing the story left off by the original Netflix series, while introducing plenty of exciting new characters and story twists along the way. Reyes's White Tiger is one of the highlights of the first two episodes, and we're bitterly disappointed we won't be seeing more from him. If you, like so many other "Daredevil" fans, were drawn to Reyes's performance, then it's worth taking a look back at his remarkable career.

Scrolling through Kamar de los Reyes's filmography on IMDb, it might seem he had a particular interest in stories that were dark and gritty. As a TV actor, Reyes has appeared in all sorts of crime dramas and high stakes thrillers, but he wasn't always one to jump into action-packed tales. Long before he was making appearances in "Law and Order" or "Daredevil: Born Again," Reyes was cutting his teeth by taking on challenging theatrical roles.

Although he eventually shifted his focus away from the theater entirely, Reyes initially had some pretty exciting roles. Working at the Public Theater with director George C. Wolfe, Reyes had the opportunity to star in "Blade to the Heat" in 1994. The very next year, Wolfe cast him alongside Sir Patrick Stewart in a production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Reyes got to play Ferdinand to Stewart's Prospero in that particular production. By the time that show was underway, Reyes had already landed his first ongoing TV role, and the rest was history.

Even while Kamar de los Reyes was hard at work on theatrical productions like "The Tempest," he was still doing plenty of acting in front of the camera. In the early '90s, Reyes landed a number of roles in small budget action flicks like "The Silencer," "Street Knight," and "Da Vinci's War." Those movies weren't career-defining, but the next step of Reyes's acting journey was just around the corner.

"Valley of the Dolls" was a fairly short-lived TV series based on the same Jacqueline Susann novel that inspired the 1967 drama. The series starred Sally Kirkland, Colleen Morris, and Melissa De Sousa as three young women living and working in southern California. Reyes landed a recurring role on the show as Ray Ariaz, and he actually appeared in every single episode of the series. Unfortunately for Reyes and his castmates, "Valley of the Dolls" only ran for a single season, albeit a season with 65 episodes in total. But the show was Reyes's first time working on a TV series, and it laid the groundwork for his rise as a soap opera star in "One Life to Live."

Soap operas started the careers of several A-list actors, but one show in particular gave Kamar de los Reyes a home on daytime TV for over a decade. "One Life to Live," like many other soap operas, is hard to sum up in just a few words, but ostensibly the show is about the families of Llanview, Pennsylvania, a fictional town where drama is as free-flowing as air. Kamar de los Reyes first joined the cast of "One Life to Live" in 1995 as Antonio Vega, a former gang member with a complicated past. Initially his story was pretty short-lived: With some help, Antonio cleared his name of a past wrongdoing, got married, and took off out of town.

Six years later, Antonio and Reyes came back to "One Life to Live" and stayed this time around for the long haul. Antonio became a recurring character, and fans came to love him largely because of Reyes's excellent performance. For his work on the show, Reyes received five different American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Award nominations. After his fifth nomination, which turned into his first win, Reyes told Soaps.com, "I had no idea I was going to be nominated and was extremely flattered. Sometimes, unfortunately, I feel that some of us, most of the actors on 'One Life to Live,' don't get the proper recognition." 

Reyes was part of the show for nearly a decade, appearing in 287 episodes. The show was a massive part of his professional life, but also had a huge impact on his personal life because it introduced him to his wife, Sherri Saum.

All throughout his life, Kamar de los Reyes was part of a big family. Reyes, who was born in Puerto Rico, had four siblings, including two older brothers. Their dad was Walfredo de los Reyes, a famous Cuba percussionist who might have given Reyes his knack for being a performer. When Reyes was young, his family moved from Puerto Rico to Las Vegas, so in a way he grew up surrounded by some of the glamor of show business.

As an adult and working actor, Reyes was still an involved family man. He fathered his oldest son, Caylen, when he was 30 years old. Later Reyes met Sherri Saum on the set of "One Life to Live," and the two of them fell in love and got married. Years after they were married, when Caylen was 17, Saum gave birth to Reyes' youngest children, twins John Rubén and Michael Luís.

Shortly after the twins were born, Saum gave People some insight into how she and Reyes were managing having two babies at once. "We have a factory-like system going on with the feeding and bathing," she said, adding, "I'm lucky because Kamar has a very organized way of approaching everything he does ... Sometimes I'll be pulling my hair out, and he'll just swoop in like some mythical baby whispering superhero." Of course, at that point Saum and her husband had no idea that Reyes would eventually put on a costume and step into the actual role of a superhero, White Tiger, in "Daredevil: Born Again."

"Call of Duty" hasn't always been a series known for its storytelling, but there are a few entries that really went above and beyond with their campaigns. "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" is one of those games. The first "Black Ops" game had already raised the bar for storytelling in "Call of Duty," but the sequel took things to a new level by incorporating player choice and multiple endings into the story. The format was a shocking change for fans, but the story wouldn't have worked so perfectly without Kamar de los Reyes.

Reyes played the game's main antagonist and leader of the Cordis Die terrorist group, Raul Menendez, sometimes known as Odysseus. Through his performance, Reyes managed to portray Odysseus as a truly complex character rather than a simple mustache-twirling villain. Reyes's voice acting work is top-notch throughout the game, but he also got the chance to go hands-on with the role by filming the motion capture himself.

Ahead of the game's release, Reyes sat down for an interview and joked about not being able to keep up with competitive first-person shooter players like his son. His own lack of gaming skills aside, Reyes told GamerHub TV, "I walked away from this experience knowing that I had just finished work on one of the most amazing projects I've ever been a part of." Gamers couldn't agree more. "Black Ops II" debuted to strong reviews, in part because of its story, and fans still list Odysseus as one of their favorite villains in the series.

A year after playing the villainous Raul Menendez in "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," Kamar de los Reyes kept that same energy flowing when he joined the cast of "Blue Bloods." In early 2013 fans learned that Reyes would be appearing in the show, and he revealed his own excitement about his upcoming role on Facebook. When fans finally got to see Reyes on the show, they realized that he might just be a perfect villain casting, regardless of the project he's joining.

Reyes only starred in two episodes of "Blue Bloods," but he left a big impact on the show. Reyes played Santana, a violent gang leader, in "The Bitter End" and "This Way Out." The two-part finale sees Jame (Will Estes) and Vinny (Sebastian Sozzi) investigating a suicide at the Bitterman Projects. The two of them are warned away by a member of Santana's gang, but that doesn't stop their investigation. Later, in one of the saddest moments in "Blue Bloods," Vinny is shot and killed by one of Santana's gang members. Reyes's character got arrested and never appeared again on the series, but his impact was felt for the rest of the show's run.

Kamar de los Reyes is largely known for his work in daytime soap operas and his guest appearances on various crime dramas, but as an actor Reyes was willing to tackle any kind of project. In 2017 he got to continue his villainous character streak and take on a new genre of storytelling when he joined the cast of "Sleepy Hollow" for the show's fourth and final season. The series is one of the best adaptations of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," and like he did with other projects, Reyes made a small but very noticeable impact on it.

In the show Reyes plays Jobe, a mysterious figure from Hell who has an air of being more powerful, and more dangerous, than he lets on. Jobe acts as the bodyguard to the season's main villain, Malcolm Dreyfuss (Jeremy Davies), but he clearly has his own motivations for doing so. Unlike other characters played by Reyes, Jobe is a demon who doesn't need to display an ounce of humanity for viewers to empathize with. Reyes really got to flex his evildoer muscles, though sadly "Sleepy Hollow" was canceled before the show had a chance to potentially bring Reyes back as a primary villain.

In 2021 Kamar de los Reyes got the opportunity to have an on-screen reunion with one of his old "One Life to Live" costars. All the way back in 1995, Nathan Fillion joined the cast of the soap opera as a character named Joey Buchanan. Fillion appeared in just a handful of episodes, but one of them just so happened to also include Reyes. It's probably likely that while they were filming that Christmas-themed episode back in the '90s, neither of them expected to meet again more than 20 years later on the set of a crime drama.

Somehow, though, that's exactly what happened. Fillion was the star of "The Rookie" from day one, and Reyes joined the show's cast as a recurring character in the third season. Reyes played Detective Sergeant Ryan Caradine, who first appeared in the episode "In Justice." In total, Reyes appeared in just five episodes of "The Rookie," but his second run-in with Fillion is sure to be the stuff of daytime soap trivia for years to come.

Tragically, Kamar de los Reyes died on December 24, 2023. He was 56 years old at the time, and his death came shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer. Reyes died in Los Angeles where he lived with his wife Sherri Saum and their two children. After his death there was a memorial service for Reyes held at Forest Lawn Cemetery, and everyone from close friends and family to actors Reyes hadn't worked with in years attended.

Not long after his death, Reyes's longtime friend Michael Easton spoke about him at a livestream event called "Daytime Stands Up: A Benefit for Stand Up to Cancer — We All Have a Story." Easton talked about meeting Reyes back in 1990 when they were both part of the cast of the movie "Coldfire." Easton said that he was nervous being part of the film but found himself drawn to Reyes's energy. "He loved life, and when you're with him, you love life too," Easton recalled, adding that Reyes was such a passionate actor that even two weeks before his death he was still working and talking about getting better.

Easton talked about how close the two of them had become over the decades — Reyes was the best man at Easton's wedding — and he opened up about the tragic but beautiful final moments of Reyes's life. "I was holding his hand when he passed, and he was surrounded by family and friends. There was so much love around him. I mean, he touched so many lives," Easton said. 

"All American" was one of the final shows that Kamar de los Reyes had the opportunity to perform in. The CW series follows the drama surrounding a high school football star's rising success, and Reyes joined in the fourth season as Coach Montes, the head coach for Coastal California's football team. He appeared in a smattering of episodes in the fourth and fifth seasons of the show, as well as the sixth season premiere.

Immediately after Reyes's death in 2023, his "All American" coworkers were devastated. Executive producer and showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll gave a statement to Deadline saying, "We are absolutely devastated at the loss of Kamar. He was such a beloved member of our 'All American' family. He brought so much love, light and joy to the set every day, even during his final days."

Reyes's character didn't have a central role to play in "All American," but the Season 6 premiere was almost certainly not intended to be his final appearance. The show, however, was actually able to give Reyes's character a touching in-universe send-off: It revealed that Coach Montes had been recruited by the NFL, and one of his players got to give him a goodbye phone call before he left the story for good.

In a certain way, Kamar de los Reyes's acting career continued even after his death. Reyes passed in December 2023, but at that point he'd already done some filming that would eventually become his final two performances. Reyes's second-to-last role, and first posthumous performance, was as the Puerto Rican superhero White Tiger in "Daredevil: Born Again." Like he did with so many characters throughout his career, Reyes brought a depth to White Tiger that made the character much more complex than the typical Marvel superhero. "Kamar is just wonderful in that role," said "Daredevil" star Charlie Cox in an interview with Blavity TV.

Reyes's character in "Daredevil: Born Again" is hugely important to that show's entire storyline, but White Tiger won't go down as Reyes's final performance. Reyes has another posthumous performance on the books, as Captain Alvarez in an episode of the Hulu series "Washington Black." That final guest appearance will close out a long career of stage, TV, and movie work that fans are going to hold onto for years to come.