
Raul Julia
Highest Rated: 87% Presumed Innocent (1990)
Lowest Rated: 10% Street Fighter (1994)
Birthday: Mar 09, 1940
Birthplace: San Juan, Puerto Rico
A magnetic presence on both stage and screen, actor Raul Julia electrified audiences with the intensity of his performances in a wide variety of roles, from the malevolent Mack the Knife in "The Threepenny Opera" and the impassioned political prisoner in "Kiss of the Spider Woman" to the ghoulish Gomez Addams in "The Addams Family" (1991). He was born Raul Rafael Julia y Arcelay in Floral Park, a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 9, 1940, the son of a former opera singer and an electrical engineer turned successful restaurateur. His family's prosperity allowed Julia to enjoy a world-class education at the private Catholic school Colegio Espiritu Santo, where he also gave his first stage performance as the Devil. The experience, along with a viewing of Errol Flynn in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938), convinced Julia to pursue a career in acting, and he continued to act in and produce school productions at Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola and later, the University of Puerto Rico. His parents, however, wanted him to study law, and he indulged their wishes with a year at Fordham University in New York before returning to Puerto Rico and resuming his acting aspirations. He worked steadily in a variety of showcases, from classical theater to musical acts and television programs before deciding to relocate to the United States on the advice of actor Orson Bean, who saw Julia perform while on vacation in Puerto Rico. Julia arrived in New York City in 1964, and after a period of training and odd jobs for financial support, began appearing Off-Broadway in classical and modern productions. While performing poetry in 1967, Julia gained the attention of New York Shakespeare Festival founder Joseph Papp, who made him stage manager for a production of "Hamlet" and also cast him in several other plays. By 1969, Julia had moved up to starring roles on Broadway in The Cuban Thing and Arthur Kopit's Indians, as well as leads for the New York Shakespeare Festival, most notably in a 1972 production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona," for which he earned his first Tony nomination. During this period, Julia also began appearing in feature films, including "The Panic in Needle Park" (1971) and "The Organization" (1971), and on four episodes of the PBS educational series "Sesame Street" (1969- ) as Raul the Fix-It Man. The stage, however, remained his primary showcase during this period, and Julia would earn two more Tony nominations for a 1974 production of "Where's Charley?" and as Mack the Knife in "The Threepenny Opera" in 1976. In 1978, he drew critical praise for his turn as Count Dracula in the Tony-winning revival of Hamilton Deane's play and as Petruchio opposite Meryl Streep in "The Taming of the Shrew." His film career finally began to flourish in the mid-1980s with his Golden Globe-nominated turn as a political prisoner in Hector Babenco's "Kiss of the Spider Woman"; the success of the film and praise for his performance led to appearances a string of major studio pictures, including a savvy detective in Frank Perry's "Compromising Positions" (1985), Jane Fonda's hairdresser husband in "The Morning After" (1986), a conniving politician who convinces Richard Dreyfuss to impersonate a Latin dictator in "Moon Over Parador" (1988), a Mexican federal officer in Robert Towne's "Tequila Sunrise" (1988) and Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero in "Romero" (1989). Julia also enjoyed substantive roles on television, most notably as Aristotle Onassis in "Onassis: The Richest Man in the World" (ABC, 1986), but he was perhaps best known to most moviegoers as the exuberant and macabre Gomez Addams in Barry Sonnenfeld's big-screen adaptation of "The Addams Family" (1991). A costly and stressful production for most of its cast and crew - Julia burst a blood vessel in his eye during filming - "Addams" was a sizable hit, and generated a modestly popular sequel, "Addams Family Values" (1993). The latter film would prove to be the last feature released during Julia's lifetime; according to various sources, Julia's health began to decline due to stomach cancer or an infection in the early 1990s, causing him to experience considerable weight loss and weakness. Despite his condition, he remained active on stage, appearing in a 1992 Broadway production of "Man of La Mancha," in the HBO drama "The Burning Season," and in the Jean-Claude Van Damme action vehicle "Street Fighter." He completed his final screen role as a Central American military torturer in hiding in "Down Came a Blackbird" (Showtime, 1995) two weeks before being hospitalized for intense abdominal pain on October 16, 1994. He suffered a stroke that evening and fell into a coma before succumbing to complications from the stroke on October 24, 1994. His body was flown to Puerto Rico for a state funeral before thousands of mourners, while actors in New York paid tribute at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. For his performance in "The Burning Season," Julia was posthumously awarded an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award.
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
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No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Down Came a Blackbird | Tomas Ramirez (Character) | - | 1995 |
No Score Yet | 74% | The Burning Season | Chico Mendes (Character) | - | 1994 |
10% | 20% | Street Fighter | General M. Bison (Character) | $33.2M | 1994 |
77% | 63% | Addams Family Values | Gomez Addams (Character) | $45.7M | 1993 |
No Score Yet | 29% | The Plague | Cottard (Character) | - | 1992 |
64% | 66% | The Addams Family | Gomez Addams (Character) | $111.3M | 1991 |
29% | 36% | The Rookie | Strom (Character) | $20.3M | 1990 |
44% | 33% | Frankenstein Unbound | Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Character) | $37K | 1990 |
28% | 57% | Havana | Arturo Duran (uncredited) (Character) | $8.8M | 1990 |
87% | 67% | Presumed Innocent | Alejandro `'Sandy'` Stern (Character) | $85.7M | 1990 |
78% | 80% | Romero | Archbishop Oscar Romero (Character) | $167K | 1989 |
20% | 50% | Mack the Knife | MacHeath (Character) | $16.1K | 1989 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Penitent | Ramon Guerola (Character) | - | 1988 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Trading Hearts | Vinnie Iacona (Character) | - | 1988 |
No Score Yet | 73% | Onassis: The Richest Man in the World | Aristotle Onassis (Character) | - | 1988 |
No Score Yet | 64% | Tango Bar | Ricardo (Character) | - | 1988 |
52% | 40% | Tequila Sunrise |
Carlos/ |
$39.7M | 1988 |
42% | 46% | Moon Over Parador | Roberto Strausmann (Character) | $10.1M | 1988 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | La Gran Fiesta | Don Miguel de la Torre (Character) | - | 1987 |
No Score Yet | 64% | The Alamo: 13 Days to Glory | Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana (Character) | - | 1987 |
No Score Yet | 14% | Florida Straits | Carlos Jayne (Character) | - | 1986 |
63% | 38% | The Morning After | Joaquin Manero (Character) | $22.4M | 1986 |
56% | 35% | Compromising Positions | David Suarez (Character) | - | 1985 |
87% | 81% | Kiss of the Spider Woman | Valentin Arregui (Character) | $13.2M | 1985 |
20% | 17% | Overdrawn at the Memory Bank |
Aram Fingal/ |
- | 1983 |
52% | 62% | One From the Heart | Ray (Character) | - | 1982 |
80% | 66% | The Escape Artist | Stu Quiñones (Character) | - | 1982 |
55% | 74% | Tempest | Kalibanos (Character) | - | 1982 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | A Life of Sin | Paulo (Character) | - | 1979 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Strong Medicine | Unknown (Character) | - | 1979 |
50% | 43% | Eyes of Laura Mars | Michael Reisler (Character) | - | 1978 |
30% | 65% | The Gumball Rally | Franco (Character) | - | 1976 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Woman Who Cried Murder | Detective Nick Rodriguez (Character) | - | 1975 |
No Score Yet | 80% | Death Scream | Detective Nick Rodriguez (Character) | - | 1975 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | King Lear | Edmund (Character) | - | 1974 |
85% | 75% | Panic in Needle Park | Marco, Junkie Artist (Character) | - | 1971 |
40% | 27% | The Organization | Juan Mendoza (Character) | - | 1971 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
87% | No Score Yet | Mystery Science Theater 3000 | Unknown (Character) | 1997 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Bob Newhart Show | Dr. Greg Robinson (Guest Star) | 1974 |
QUOTES FROM Raul Julia CHARACTERS
Bison says: You've made me a happy man.
Col. Guile says: Next, I'll make you a dead one.
Bison says: Of Course!
Bison says: Of course!
Sagat says: Guile, alive?
Bison says: Of course! His death was designed to ingratiate his spies with you.
Bison says: I guess you didn't see that did you!
Sandy Stern says: I believe Larren today did what he thought was just. You tell me, Rusty. Was justice done?
Sagat says: Guile? Alive?
Bison says: Of course! His "death" was meant to integrate his sspies with you. I guess you didn't see that, did you? [While mockingly covering one eye]
Bison says: Of course! His 'death' was meant to integrate his spies with you. I guess you didn't see that, did you? [while mockingly covering one eye]
Bison says: For you; The day Bison graced your village was the most important day in you life. But for me... it was tuesday.
Bison says: For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.
Col. Guile says: Your weapon...Bison. What happen to the purity of unarmed combat?
Col. Guile says: No weapon, Bison? What happened to the purity of unarmed combat?
Bison says: This is merely superconductor electromagnetism. Surely you've heard of it. It levitates bullet trains from Tokyo to Osaka. It levitates my desk, where I ride the saddle of the world. And it levitates...me!
Bison says: This is merely superconductor electromagnetism. Surely you've heard of it. It levitates bullet trains from Tokyo to Osaka. It levitates my desk, where I ride the saddle of the world. And it levitates... me!