Biography
This page uses content from the Tomas Milian biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Tomás Milián, real name Tomás Quintín Rodriguez (born March 3, 1932), is a Cuban-American actor.
Career
Milian was born in Havana. The son of a Cuban general, he settled in the United States to study in New York's Actor's Studio and became an American citizen.
After an unsuccessful start in the United States, he relocated to pursued acting jobs in Italy, where he gradually became a very successful performer. He lived in Italy for over 25 years. Although his voice was dubbed most of the time due to his accent, Milian performed his lines in Italian (or in English, depending on the film). He initially starred in arthouse movies and worked with directors such as Mauro Bolognini and Luchino Visconti. He soon became a star in spaghetti westerns, where he often played Mexican bandits or revolutionaries, roles in which he spoke in his real voice. As the genre dwindled, Milian remained a star in many genre films, often playing the villain in poliziotteschi movies. He later turned to comedy. While his voice was dubbed most of the time by Ferruccio Amendola, Milian wrote his own lines in Roman slang. Milian's inventive use of romanesco (roman dialect) made him somewhat of a cult performer in Italy, even though his later films were critically panned.
As he aged, Milian found himself less in demand after renouncing his previous screen personas. He eventually decided to go back to the US, where he pursued a low-key career as a character actor. He has played many roles on stage. He could be seen in such movies as Sidney Pollack's Havana, Steven Spielberg's Amistad, Steven Soderbergh's Traffic as well Andy Garcia's The Lost City about Revolutionary Cuba.
Milian now resides in Miami.
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