randommattstuff

[randommattstuff]

Revisiting Breaking Bad’s ‘Mustache man’

Way back in 2013, I was watching an episode of Breaking Bad, as we all did on Breaking Bad. One actor, an extra, caught everyone’s attention. It was an extra in the DEA’s office, one with an epic mustache.

I found his son on Twitter and he set me up with a quick phone interview with his dad, Robert Sanchez.

I wrote about it at the time the day after the episode “Buried” aired for a site called Newscastic which no longer exists. 

They always say the internet is forever, but this particular article doesn’t exist anywhere. It’s just a bunch of dead links from websites to it (we got links from a bunch of huge sites, including The AV Club, which I read pretty regularly back then). Thanks to all those links, it was the most-read thing I wrote for Newscastic, and maybe the most-read thing I’ve ever written.

Anyway, I thought about it again for the first time in years when I was watching this latest episode of Better Call Saul (”Namaste”) and Sanchez popped up again. So, I found one place where the article does exist: My Google Drive. Here’s what was published (or close to it, maybe there were some edits once it hit the site’s CMS) six and a half years ago, though with a new screen shot.

In a Breaking Bad episode packed with great acting, great landscapes and twists and turns, one extra stole the show.

Robert Sanchez was only on screen for 15 seconds and he didn’t even get a line. But as soon as his face was on screen, Twitter erupted and he reached the front page of Reddit. 

Why? His mustache. It puts Tom Selleck’s mustache to shame and makes Hulk Hogan’s mustache beg for mercy. The actor has, no joke, award-winning facial hair.

I spoke to Sanchez by phone on Monday after the show and he said he had no idea about the reaction to his brief appearance -- his sixth or seventh appearance on the critically acclaimed show.

He had no idea about the reaction until his sons (who helped set up the interview) told him that he was “all over Twitter.”

He was originally supposed to be a biker, but then they decided to put him in the DEA office so he would get called back more -- and so he could be around Steven Michael Quezada, the actor who plays DEA agent Steven Gomez. The two know each other from playing softball against each other.

In fact, Sanchez got the part after playing golf with Quezada and Dean Norris, the actor who plays Hank Schrader on the show. He told Norris to get him a job because he didn’t have one at the time, and Norris said he would have someone call him.

And, to Sanchez’s surprise, he did receive a call. And he keeps getting calls.

“They always called me back every time the DEA was going to have a little scene there, 'Hey Vince wants you to come in, can you come in?' Heck yeah, I took off of work and everything.”

And when he come in, he gets his own personalized DEA badge. The name of his character? Harry Lipenstein.

Last night’s cameo wasn’t his biggest appearance. He had a scene where he shook hands with Norris after his character was promoted (his voice was dubbed over). In another, he gave the middle finger to a member of Tuco’s crew.

And he was in the elevator with Tio Salamanca in the season 4 finale “Face Off.”

But back to the epic mustache.

Sanchez retired from the Albuquerque Fire Department eleven years ago, then started growing out the mustache.

“I've always had a regular mustache, but I started growing it super long here,” he told me. “I've cut it a couple of times, probably the last time I cut it real short was for my oldest son's wedding.”

And his facial hair? It will be taking him to New Orleans for the National Beard and Mustache Championships next month.

Sanchez won a local competition for his goatee in Rio Rancho earlier this year. Then he ended up winning the top prize of El Guapo.