Paul Shenar
Albert Paul Shenar was an American actor and theater director best known for his portrayals of Jenner in Don Bluth's The Secret of NIMH and Alejandro Sosa in Scarface.
A veteran Broadway and Shakespearean actor, he was one of the twenty-seven founding members of the American Conservatory Theater.
Early life
Shenar was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second of four boys, born from Mary Rosella and Eugene Joseph Shenar. He was of Polish and Slovene descent.Career
Shenar became involved in theater at an early age, working in Milwaukee playhouse productions. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. Following his military career he began acting again. Shenar gained attention playing larger-than-life entertainment legends in late 1970s television films—Orson Welles in The Night That Panicked America and Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., in Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women. He portrayed the character John Carrington in Part II of the miniseries Roots.A founding member, actor, director and teacher of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, he played more than forty roles there, including Hamlet, Oedipus Rex and Brother Julian in Tiny Alice. In 1982, he portrayed Jenner, the main antagonist of Don Bluth's The Secret of NIMH; his performance in the film impressed Bluth so much that he wanted Shenar to also portray Space Aces main antagonist, Commander Borf, but was unable to do so due to budget issues and the role ultimately went to Bluth himself.
In 1983, Shenar also portrayed Alejandro Sosa in Brian De Palma's Scarface and later portrayed Paulo Rocca in Raw Deal.
Shenar continued to act during the late 1980s. He did a stage version of Macbeth in Los Angeles and appeared in films like Best Seller, The Bedroom Window, The Big Blue, plus the TV film Rage of Angels: The Story Continues.