'Zorba' Actor Quinn Lived Life to the Full
BOSTON (Reuters) - Actor Anthony Quinn, who died on Sunday at age 86, starred in more than 100 films and won two Oscars (news - web sites) in a career that spanned nearly six decades, but the role that defined him in the public mind was the earthy fun-loving character he played in the 1964 film ``Zorba the Greek.''
For Quinn, ``Zorba'' was far more than just a film role. ``I am Zorba,'' Quinn once said of the hero of the movie, a worldly wise Greek who lives life to the fullest.
Like Zorba, Quinn's life was painted on a broad canvas, ranging from an impoverished childhood in Mexico and Los Angeles to the pampered luxury of a Hollywood star.
His worked as a shoe-shine boy, a fruit picker, an electrician, a cement mixer, a dress cutter, a saxophone player and, for two years and 16 fights, a professional boxer.
After considering careers as a priest and an architect, he entered films by playing Indians in Westerns.
Although Quinn won two Academy Awards (news - web sites) for best supporting actor, his ``Zorba'' went unrewarded. Yet it remained his most memorable role, one he recreated on Broadway in 1984.
``Before I had to paint my hair white,'' he remarked of his second portrayal of Zorba. ``Now I'm just right.''
Anthony Rudolph Oaxaca Quinn was born on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, where his half-Irish father Francisco (Frank) Quinn had married a Mexican girl of Aztec Indian ancestry, Manuela, while fighting for revolutionary leader Pancho Villa.
The family moved to El Paso, Texas, and three years later to Los Angeles in search of work. After five years in the city Frank Quinn was killed in a car accident.
Quinn was raised in a poor district of Los Angeles and never forgot his past. He fought throughout his career for civil and trade union rights to the point of being branded a communist during the McCarthy era in the 1950s.
``I have never been a Communist,'' the actor said in his autobiography. ``I was pro-labor for humanitarian reasons. I was anti-fascist and anti-Nazi because they preached racial and nationalistic superiority.''
As a teen-ager, Quinn underwent minor tongue surgery to improve his speech and afterward took voice lessons at a Los Angeles drama school, paying the fee by cleaning windows and floors. He began appearing in stage productions at 18.
A BREAK FROM MAE WEST
Mae West gave Quinn his first big chance on stage in the play ''Clean Beds,'' which she financed and produced. His part was a take-off of John Barrymore, then an aging actor fading from the limelight.
As a result of the play, Quinn and Barrymore became acquainted and began a close relationship. The two men, along with comedian W.C. Fields, writer Gene Fowler and painter John Decker would get together at Barrymore's home for alcoholic afternoons and recite Shakespeare.
Quinn's first screen role -- a 45-second appearance -- came in the film ``Parole'' in 1936.
Quinn's talent flourished in dozens of films in which he depicted a wide array of characters, usually with a full-blooded vitality.
He won an Oscar for best supporting actor in ``Viva Zapata!'', a film made in 1952 in which he depicted a Mexican revolutionary. He captured another best supporting Oscar four years later for his portrayal of the French painter Paul Gauguin in the movie ''Lust for Life.''
Quinn has also appeared in the title role of ``Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1956), as a prize fighter in ``Requiem for a Heavyweight'' (1963), an Arab in ``Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), a Greek in ``Guns of Navarone'' (1961) and ``Zorba the Greek'' (1964), and an Italian strongman in ``La Strada'' (1954).
``To me, acting...(is) living,'' he once said. ``I love to live, so I live. I love to act, so I act. I gotta have vitality.''
His passion for acting dimmed somewhat in the 1990s, and he told an interviewer he would like to quit.
SOMETIMES ASHAMED OF ACTING
``I get ashamed of being an actor,'' he said. ``It's the most embarrassing profession in the world. You have to face rejection constantly and you have to have skin like a rhinoceros.''
Quinn married Iolanda Addolori, an Italian teacher who was a wardrobe mistress on ``La Strada,'' in 1966 after his first marriage, to Katherine De Mille, daughter of director Cecil B. De Mille, ended in divorce.
He had two sons and three daughters by his first marriage, but his eldest son, Christopher, drowned at the age of 3 in W.C. Fields' swimming pool. He had another two sons by Addolori before they married, and she gave birth to a third shortly after the wedding.
Addolori and Quinn finalized a bitter divorce in 1997. He subsequently married Kathy Benvin, then 35.
He is the father of nine sons and four daughters by his three wives and three mistresses.
Quinn continued to work into the 1990s. He played a Spanish tycoon opposite Kevin Costner in the movie ``Revenge'' (1990) and a spirit in love with Bo Derek in ``Ghosts Can't Do It'' (1990).
He starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in ``Last Action Hero'' (1993) and opposite Keanu Reeves in ``A Walk in the Clouds'' (1995). More recently he appeared in the 1999 Brazilian (news - web sites) film ''Oriundi,'' about an Italian immigrant family living in Brazil, and opposite Sylvester Stallone and Madeleine Stowe in ``Avenging Angelo'' (2001), about a murdered Mafia chieftain.
Along the way Quinn amassed an estate valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, including an art collection that boasted a Picasso.
He became a noted impressionist painter and sculptor in his own right, and actively promoted his work.
A self-taught man, Quinn believed a person could lead a successful life only if he used every single day for self-betterment. During a typical day he swam and jogged, then spent time painting or sculpting.
``I'm like a guy playing a horn,'' he once said. ``There's a note I hear inside me, but I can't play it yet. Some day I'm going to hit that note.''
*********
R.I.P Anthony Quinn.
Long live Zeus, King of the Gods.
BOSTON (Reuters) - Actor Anthony Quinn, who died on Sunday at age 86, starred in more than 100 films and won two Oscars (news - web sites) in a career that spanned nearly six decades, but the role that defined him in the public mind was the earthy fun-loving character he played in the 1964 film ``Zorba the Greek.''
For Quinn, ``Zorba'' was far more than just a film role. ``I am Zorba,'' Quinn once said of the hero of the movie, a worldly wise Greek who lives life to the fullest.
Like Zorba, Quinn's life was painted on a broad canvas, ranging from an impoverished childhood in Mexico and Los Angeles to the pampered luxury of a Hollywood star.
His worked as a shoe-shine boy, a fruit picker, an electrician, a cement mixer, a dress cutter, a saxophone player and, for two years and 16 fights, a professional boxer.
After considering careers as a priest and an architect, he entered films by playing Indians in Westerns.
Although Quinn won two Academy Awards (news - web sites) for best supporting actor, his ``Zorba'' went unrewarded. Yet it remained his most memorable role, one he recreated on Broadway in 1984.
``Before I had to paint my hair white,'' he remarked of his second portrayal of Zorba. ``Now I'm just right.''
Anthony Rudolph Oaxaca Quinn was born on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, where his half-Irish father Francisco (Frank) Quinn had married a Mexican girl of Aztec Indian ancestry, Manuela, while fighting for revolutionary leader Pancho Villa.
The family moved to El Paso, Texas, and three years later to Los Angeles in search of work. After five years in the city Frank Quinn was killed in a car accident.
Quinn was raised in a poor district of Los Angeles and never forgot his past. He fought throughout his career for civil and trade union rights to the point of being branded a communist during the McCarthy era in the 1950s.
``I have never been a Communist,'' the actor said in his autobiography. ``I was pro-labor for humanitarian reasons. I was anti-fascist and anti-Nazi because they preached racial and nationalistic superiority.''
As a teen-ager, Quinn underwent minor tongue surgery to improve his speech and afterward took voice lessons at a Los Angeles drama school, paying the fee by cleaning windows and floors. He began appearing in stage productions at 18.
A BREAK FROM MAE WEST
Mae West gave Quinn his first big chance on stage in the play ''Clean Beds,'' which she financed and produced. His part was a take-off of John Barrymore, then an aging actor fading from the limelight.
As a result of the play, Quinn and Barrymore became acquainted and began a close relationship. The two men, along with comedian W.C. Fields, writer Gene Fowler and painter John Decker would get together at Barrymore's home for alcoholic afternoons and recite Shakespeare.
Quinn's first screen role -- a 45-second appearance -- came in the film ``Parole'' in 1936.
Quinn's talent flourished in dozens of films in which he depicted a wide array of characters, usually with a full-blooded vitality.
He won an Oscar for best supporting actor in ``Viva Zapata!'', a film made in 1952 in which he depicted a Mexican revolutionary. He captured another best supporting Oscar four years later for his portrayal of the French painter Paul Gauguin in the movie ''Lust for Life.''
Quinn has also appeared in the title role of ``Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1956), as a prize fighter in ``Requiem for a Heavyweight'' (1963), an Arab in ``Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), a Greek in ``Guns of Navarone'' (1961) and ``Zorba the Greek'' (1964), and an Italian strongman in ``La Strada'' (1954).
``To me, acting...(is) living,'' he once said. ``I love to live, so I live. I love to act, so I act. I gotta have vitality.''
His passion for acting dimmed somewhat in the 1990s, and he told an interviewer he would like to quit.
SOMETIMES ASHAMED OF ACTING
``I get ashamed of being an actor,'' he said. ``It's the most embarrassing profession in the world. You have to face rejection constantly and you have to have skin like a rhinoceros.''
Quinn married Iolanda Addolori, an Italian teacher who was a wardrobe mistress on ``La Strada,'' in 1966 after his first marriage, to Katherine De Mille, daughter of director Cecil B. De Mille, ended in divorce.
He had two sons and three daughters by his first marriage, but his eldest son, Christopher, drowned at the age of 3 in W.C. Fields' swimming pool. He had another two sons by Addolori before they married, and she gave birth to a third shortly after the wedding.
Addolori and Quinn finalized a bitter divorce in 1997. He subsequently married Kathy Benvin, then 35.
He is the father of nine sons and four daughters by his three wives and three mistresses.
Quinn continued to work into the 1990s. He played a Spanish tycoon opposite Kevin Costner in the movie ``Revenge'' (1990) and a spirit in love with Bo Derek in ``Ghosts Can't Do It'' (1990).
He starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in ``Last Action Hero'' (1993) and opposite Keanu Reeves in ``A Walk in the Clouds'' (1995). More recently he appeared in the 1999 Brazilian (news - web sites) film ''Oriundi,'' about an Italian immigrant family living in Brazil, and opposite Sylvester Stallone and Madeleine Stowe in ``Avenging Angelo'' (2001), about a murdered Mafia chieftain.
Along the way Quinn amassed an estate valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, including an art collection that boasted a Picasso.
He became a noted impressionist painter and sculptor in his own right, and actively promoted his work.
A self-taught man, Quinn believed a person could lead a successful life only if he used every single day for self-betterment. During a typical day he swam and jogged, then spent time painting or sculpting.
``I'm like a guy playing a horn,'' he once said. ``There's a note I hear inside me, but I can't play it yet. Some day I'm going to hit that note.''
*********
R.I.P Anthony Quinn.
