: Raul Julia Born March 9, 1940San Juan, Puerto RicoDied October 24, 1994Manhasset, New YorkRaúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay [IPA: ɾa'ul ɾafa'il xu'lia i aɾθe'lai] (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994) was a Puerto Rican actor who lived and worke
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay [IPA: ɾa'ul ɾafa'il xu'lia i aɾθe'lai] (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994) was a Puerto Rican actor who lived and worked for many years in the United States. His career spanned stage and screen, and included dramatic, comic, and musical roles.
Juliá's father dreamed of bringing pizza to Puerto Rico. In fact, his father made that dream a reality when he added pizza to the menu at "La Cueva del Chicken Inn," his oddly named restaurant in San Juan. His son later hailed that pizza as "the best you've ever eaten."
The success of La Cueva del Chicken Inn ("The Chicken's Cave Inn") provided Juliá with more than good pizza. It paved the way for him to follow his own dreams, and to become one of the finest Puerto Rican actors of his generation. For 30 years, working in theater, film, and television, he would challenge and delight audiences with his complex, often enthralling performances.
Birth
Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay was born in San Juan on March 9, 1940. Throughout his youth his father's business was particularly successful.
This economic security ensured excellent schooling for young Raúl. He studied at Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola and attended the University of Puerto Rico where he was a member of Phi Sigma Alpha. Puerto Rican pro-independence leader Rubén Berríos was a classmate and close friend.
Acting
Juliá discovered acting early in his academic career, beginning with a role in first grade. "From then on, that was it," he told Cigar Aficionado magazine in 1993. "I knew there was something special about the theater for me something beyond the regular reality, something that I could get into and transcend and become something other than myself." He was a game show host and teen program host on Puerto Rican television.
Upon graduation from college, Juliá was faced with a difficult choice between his parents' wishes and his own. They wanted him to continue to law school. He wanted to pursue an acting career. Finally, like so many aspiring actors, he left for New York City in 1964 and began studying drama with Wynn Handman. He soon found work in off-Broadway theater.
In 1966, Juliá began working with theater impresario Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival. His Shakespearean roles included Edmund in King Lear in 1973 and the title role of Othello in 1979. Juliá went on to enjoy great success on the musical stage, receiving four Tony Award nominations for his roles in Two Gentlemen of Verona (1972), Where's Charley? (1975), as Mack the Knife in The Threepenny Opera (1977), and in the Fellini-inspired Nine (1982).
The stage successes led to his film debut in The Organization (1971), in which he starred opposite Sidney Poitier. In the early 1980s, Juliá was invited to join Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios company and appeared in One From the Heart (1982).
In 1971, Juliá also appeared as a regular cast member, Rafael, on the children's TV series Sesame Street. Rafael only appeared on the Street during the third season, and then Juliá moved on to other projects.
Although he never became a major film superstar, Juliá had notable dramatic and comic roles in a number of films and made-for-TV movies. In 1983, he starred in a spectacularly disastrous made-for-TV movie Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, an adaptation of a John Varley short story which would later be mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000. In 1984 he appeared in the Puerto Rican film, "La Gran Fiesta", directed by Marcos Zurinaga, his small monologue near the end of the film is regarded as the film's turning point. In Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), he played a passionate political prisoner, and in Romero (1989) he played the Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero.
The Addams Family Movies
In the first two popular Addams Family movies, Juliá played Gomez Addams, which drove him into superstar status. He later stated that getting recognized by kids as Gomez Addams always brought a smile to his face, especially towards the end of his life. He also noted the fact that his earlier recollections of the role were those from the Spanish-dubbed version of the first television series (starring John Astin in the role of Gomez, which was named "Homero" in the Spanish version), and as such, he could not draw much from them; he had to adapt the role directly from the original Charles Addams cartoons.
Illness and Death
Illness began to take its toll on Juliá. In 1993, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer (see later), but he continued to perform, creating one of his most memorable roles as Brazilian rainforest activist Chico Mendes in The Burning Season (1994), for which he posthumously won a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award. He also starred in the videogame-inspired film Street Fighter as the villainous M. Bison, for whom he used an English accent.
On October 16, 1994, Juliá suffered a stroke in his New York City apartment and fell into a coma. He died eight days later, at the age of 54.
Juliá's body was flown back to Puerto Rico, where he was given a state funeral attended by thousands. He was survived by his wife of 14 years and his two sons - Raul met his wife Merel Poloway when they were both touring or a show called "Llya, Darling." They were married in 1976. In 1983 they had their first son Raul Sigmund Julia. In 1987 he had his second son Benjamin Rafael Julia. Film critic Leonard Maltin said of him: "Droopy-eyed, dark, and suavely handsome, this extremely versatile actor was one of the most respected stage performers of his generation."
Filmography
See also
External links
fr:Raúl Juliá
pl:Raúl Juliá
sv:Raul Julia
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia |
