Tomas Milian

Tomás Quintín Rodríguez-Varona Milián Salinas de la Fé y Álvarez de la Campa was a Cuban-born method actor with American and Italian citizenship, known for the emotional intensity and humor he brought to starring roles in European genre films.
He is known for Bad Girls Don't Cry and as Raphael in Carol Reed's The Agony and the Ecstasy. Throughout the late-1960s and early-1970s, Milian established himself as a dynamic leading actor in a series of Spaghetti Western films, most notably The Big Gundown, Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!, as well as Sergio Corbucci's parody of the genre The White, the Yellow, and the Black. Dennis Hopper also cast Milian in his 1971 art-house film, The Last Movie.
After the decline of Spaghetti Westerns, Milian transitioned to poliziottesco films. He was acclaimed as a psychotic killer in Almost Human, and appeared in Emergency Squad, The Tough Ones and The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist. Returning to the United States in 1985, Milian performed supporting roles in JFK, Amistad, Traffic and The Lost City.

Early life and education

Milian was born in Havana as the son of a Cuban general. His father was arrested, jailed, and later committed suicide on December 31, 1946. Milián then decided to leave Cuba and pursue his wishes of being an actor. He settled in the United States to study at New York's Actors Studio and later became an American citizen. In 1969, he became a naturalized Italian citizen.
Milian studied method acting at the Actors Studio in New York City as a student of Lee Strasberg.

Career

After starting a career in the United States, Milian went to Italy in 1958 to take part in a theatre festival in Spoleto. In Italy, he was discovered by director Mauro Bolognini and appeared in supporting roles in several drama films during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
He eventually decided to relocate to Italy, where he lived for over 25 years, becoming a very successful performer. His first film part in Italy was in the 1959 picture La notte brava. Although his voice was usually dubbed due to his accent, Milián performed his lines in Italian. He initially starred in arthouse movies and worked with directors such as Mauro Bolognini and Luchino Visconti.
After five years of making what he deemed "intellectual" movies, Milián was unhappy with his contract with producer Franco Cristaldi and thought of going back to the United States. Needing money to start over, he took the opportunity to star as a bandit in a Spaghetti Western called The Bounty Killer. The film boosted his career, and ultimately resulted in his staying in Italy. He became a star of the Spaghetti Western genre, where he often played Mexican bandits or revolutionaries, roles in which he spoke in his real voice. He starred in The Ugly Ones, The Big Gundown, Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!, Face to Face, Run, Man, Run, Death Sentence, Tepepa, Compañeros, Sonny and Jed, Life Is Tough, Eh Providence? and Four of the Apocalypse.
As the Spaghetti Westerns dwindled, Milián remained a star in many genre films, playing both villains and heroes in various polizieschi movies. He starred with Barbara Bouchet in the giallo Don't Torture a Duckling. In addition to his role in Almost Human and appearances in Emergency Squad, The Tough Ones and The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist, he also appeared in two film series - Bruno Corbucci's Nico Giraldi series and Umberto Lenzi's Er Monnezza films. His other films during this period include the giallo Don't Torture a Duckling and the non-genre films The Last Movie, Luna, Identification of a Woman and Monsignor.
He later turned to comedy, playing the recurrent characters of petty thief Monnezza and Serpico-like police officer Nico Giraldi in a variety of crime-comedy pictures. Although his voice was dubbed most of the time by Ferruccio Amendola, Milián wrote his own lines in Roman slang. Milián's inventive use of romanesco made him a cult performer in Italy. Bruno Corbucci, the director of many of these films commented, "At the cinemas as soon as Tomás Milián appeared on the screen, when he made a wisecrack and in the heaviest situations, then it was a pandemonium, it was like being at the stadium." As Milián used similar makeups and accents in portraying both characters, Monnezza and Nico were occasionally confused by Italian audiences, who sometimes referred erroneously to them both as Monnezza, or Er Monnezza, and still closely associate Milián with these performances.
Milián also appeared in non-genre pictures, such as Bernardo Bertolucci's La Luna, for which he won a Nastro d'Argento for Best supporting Actor, and Michelangelo Antonioni's Identification of a Woman.
As he grew older, Milián decided to go back to the United States. He appeared in Sydney Pollack's Havana, Steven Spielberg's Amistad, Steven Soderbergh's Traffic as well as Andy García's The Lost City, about Revolutionary Cuba. He has also played many roles on stage. In 2005, he portrayed Generalisimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina in the film version of Mario Vargas Llosa's novel The Feast of the Goat.

Death

Milian was found dead from a stroke at his home in Miami on 22 March 2017.
On October 11, 2017 he received the Leone in Memoriam award at the 7º Almería Western Film Festival. It was picked up by his friend Luis Santeiro.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Director
1959	Bad Girls Don't Cry	Moretto		Mauro Bolognini
1960	Il bell'Antonio	Edoardo		Mauro Bolognini
1960	Silver Spoon Set	Alberto De Matteis		Francesco Maselli
1961	The Mishap	Thomas Plemian	L'imprevisto	Alberto Lattuada
1961	A Day for Lionhearts	Gino Migliacci	Un giorno da leoni	Nanni Loy
1961	Day by Day, Desperately	Dario Dominici	Italian: Giorno per giorno disperatamente	Alfredo Giannetti
1962	Boccaccio '70	Conte Ottavio		Luchino Visconti
1962	Disorder	Bruno		Franco Brusati
1962	La banda Casaroli	Gabriele Ingenis		Florestano Vancini
1963	Ro.Go.Pa.G.	Centurione	Segment: "La ricotta"	Pier Paolo Pasolini
1963	Mad Sea	Efsio		Renato Castellani
1965	I Kill, You Kill	Lorenzo Berti		Gianni Puccini
1965	Time of Indifference	Michele	Italian: Gli indifferenti	Francesco Maselli
1965	The Camp Followers	Lt. Gaetano Martino	Italian: Le soldatesse	Valerio Zurlini
1965	The Agony and the Ecstasy	Raphael		Carol Reed
1965	I soldi	Bob		Gianni Puccini
1966	Madamigella di Maupin	Chevalier d'Albert		Mauro Bolognini
1966	The Ugly Ones	José Gómez		Eugenio Martin
1967	The Big Gundown	Cuchillo Sanchez	Italian: La resa dei conti	Sergio Sollima
1967	Face to Face	Beau Bennet		Sergio Sollima
1967	Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!	The Stranger		Giulio Questi
1968	Bandits in Milan	Comissario Walter Basevi		Carlo Lizzani
1968	Death Sentence	O'Hara	Italian: Sentenza di morte	Mario Lanfranchi
1968	Run, Man, Run!	Cuchillo Sanchez		Sergio Sollima
1968	A Fine Pair	Roger	Italian: Ruba al prossimo tuo	Francesco Maselli
1969	Tepepa	Jesus Maria "Tepepa" Moran		Giulio Petroni
1969	The Conspiracy of Torture	Olimpio Calvetti	Italian: Beatrice Cenci	Lucio Fulci
1969	Where Are You Going All Naked?	Manfredo	Italian: Dove vai tutta nuda?	Pasquale Festa Campanile
1969	The Year of the Cannibals	Emone	Italian: I cannibali	Liliana Cavani
1970	Compañeros	El Vasco		Sergio Corbucci
1970	Viva Cangaceiro	Espedito		Giovanni Fago
1971	The Designated Victim	Stefano Augenti		Maurizio Lucidi
1971	The Last Movie	the Priest		Dennis Hopper
1972	Ripped Off	the Stranger		Franco Prosperi
1972	Sonny and Jed	Jed Trigado		Sergio Corbucci
1972	Don't Torture a Duckling	Andrea Martelli	Italian: Non si sevizia un paperino	Lucio Fulci
1972	Life Is Tough, Eh Providence?	Provvidenza		Giulio Petroni	-
1973	Counselor at Crime	Thomas Accardo	Italian: Il consigliori	Alberto De Martino
1974	Emergency Squad	Tomas Ravelli	Italian: Squadra volante	Stelvio Massi
1974	Almost Human	Giulio Sacchi		Umberto Lenzi
1975	Silent Action	Rienzi		Sergio Martino
1975	Syndicate Sadists	Rambo		Umberto Lenzi
1975	The White, the Yellow, and the Black	Sakura		Sergio Corbucci
1975	Four of the Apocalypse	Chaco	Italian: I quattro dell'apocalisse	Lucio Fulci
1975		Thompson	French-Italian film. Literally: "Follow to kill"	Yves Boisset
1975	Messalina, Messalina!	Baba	AKA Caligula II: Messalina, Messalina and Caligula: Sins of Rome	Bruno Corbucci
1976	Sex with a Smile	Cavaliere Marelli	Italian: 40 gradi all'ombra del lenzuolo	Sergio Martino
1976	The Tough Ones	Vincenzo Moretto		Umberto Lenzi
1976	The Cop in Blue Jeans	Nico Giraldi	Italian: Squadra antiscippo	Bruno Corbucci
1976	The Twist	The Detective	French: Folies bourgeoises	Claude Chabrol
1976	Hit Squad	Nico Giraldi	Italian: Squadra antifurto	Bruno Corbucci
1976	Young, Violent, Dangerous	the Commissioner	Italian: Liberi armati pericolosi	Romolo Guerrieri
1977	The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist	Luigi Maietto	Italian: Il cinico, l'infame, il violento	Umberto Lenzi	-
1977	Free Hand for a Tough Cop	Sergio Marazzi		Umberto Lenzi
1977	Brothers Till We Die	Sergio Marazzi / The Hunchback	Italian: La banda del gobbo	Umberto Lenzi
1977	Destruction Force	Sergio Marazzi		Stelvio Massi
1977	Swindle	Nico Giraldi		Bruno Corbucci
1978	Little Italy	Nico Giraldi	Italian Squadra antimafia	Bruno Corbucci
1979	The Gang That Sold America	Nico Giraldi	Italian: Squadra antigangsters	Bruno Corbucci
1979	Assassinio sul Tevere	Nico Giraldi	Literally: "Assassination on the Tiber"	Bruno Corbucci
1979	La Luna	Giuseppe	U.S. title: Luna	Bernardo Bertolucci
1979	Winter Kills	Frank Mayo		William Richert
1980	Il lupo e l'agnello	Cuckoo		Francesco Massaro
1980	Delitto a Porta Romana	Nico Giraldi	"Crime at Porta Romana"	Bruno Corbucci
1981	Manolesta	Gino Quirino		Pasquale Festa Campanile	-
1981	Crime at the Chinese Restaurant	Nico Giraldi	Italian: Delitto al ristorante cinese	Bruno Corbucci
1981	Uno contro l'altro, praticamente amici	Quinto Cecione	"Against Each Other, Practically Friends"	Bruno Corbucci
1982	Delitto sull'autostrada	Nico Giraldi	"Crime on the Highway"	Bruno Corbucci
1982	Identification of a Woman	Niccolò	Italian: Identificazione di una donna	Michelangelo Antonioni
1982	Monsignor	Father Francisco		Frank Perry
1982	Cat and Dog	Tony Roma		Bruno Corbucci
1983	Crime in Formula One	Nico Giraldi	Italian: Delitto in Formula Uno	Bruno Corbucci
1984	Cop in Drag	Nico Giraldi	Italian: Delitto al Blue Gay	Bruno Corbucci
1985	King David	Akiss		Bruce Beresford
1986	Salomé	Herod II		Claude d'Anna
1987	Distant Lights	Bernardo Bernardi	Italian: Luci lontane	Aurelio Chiesa
1989	Cat Chaser	Andres DeBoya		Abel Ferrara
1989	Massacre Play	Clem Da Silva		Damiano Damiani
1990	Revenge	Cesar		Tony Scott
1990	Havana	Colonel Menocal		Sydney Pollack
1991	Money	Robert Zarra		Steven Hilliard Stern
1991	JFK	Leopoldo		Oliver Stone
1994	The Cowboy Way	Manny Huerta		Gregg Champion
1997	Fools Rush In	Tomas Fuentes		Andy Tennant
1997	Amistad	Ángel Calderón de la Barca y Belgrano		Steven Spielberg
2000	The Yards	Manuel Sequeira		James Gray
2000	Traffic	General Arturo Salazar		Steven Soderbergh
2001	The Hire: Ambush	Passenger	Short	John Frankenheimer
2002	Washington Heights	Eddie		Alfredo De Villa
2005	The Lost City	Don Federico Fellove		Andy García
2005	The Feast of the Goat	Rafael Leonidas Trujillo	Spanish: La fiesta del chivo	Luis Llosa
2013	Tomas Milian: Acting on Instinct	Himself	Video	Ozzy Inguanzo
2014	Fugly!	Gramps		Alfredo De Villa