Charo  Maria Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza, professionally known by her stage name Charo, is a Spanish American actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist. Charo began playing guitar at the age of 9 and trained under the famed Andrés Segovia. In 1966 she married bandleader Xavier Cugat and they moved to the United States. In the late 1960s and 1970s, she became a ubiquitous presence on American television, frequently appearing as a guest star on series such as "Laugh-In, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat," and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". She is known for her uninhibited and exuberant manner, vague age, ostensible lack of fluency in English, heavy Spanish accent, and the catch-phrase "cuchi-cuchi." As a musician, she has performed and recorded in various styles for five decades. She released a series of disco recordings in the 1970s with Salsoul Records, most notably "Dance a Little Bit Closer" (1977). In 1995 her flamenco album "Guitar Passion" (1994) won the Female Pop Album of the Year award at the Billboard International Latin Music Conference and was named best female Latin pop album by "Billboard". In an interview Charo said, "Around the world I am known as a great musician. But in America I am known as the cuchi-cuchi girl. That’s okay because cuchi-cuchi has taken me all the way to the bank." Charo was born in the town of Murcia, Spain. Her birth date and year has been a matter of some dispute. Her Spanish passport gives her name as María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza. Charo has occasionally claimed that she was enrolled in a convent as a young child and remained there until she was 15, when a nun stated that she belonged in show business. In the most colorful version of this childhood, Charo's grandmother hired a music professor to give her weekly classical guitar lessons, and he became the first man to enter the convent. Charo has stated in several interviews that she graduated with honors at age 16. Charo was discovered as a young performer by bandleader Xavier Cugat, whom she later wed on August 7, 1966. When they married, Cugat was 66 and had already been married four times (Rita Montaner, Carmen Castillo, Lorraine Allen, and Abbe Lane), although reports sometimes listed fewer marriages.