Quinn, Anthony

Quinn, Anthony (Anthony Rudolph Oaxaca Quinn), 1915–2001, American actor, b. Chihuahua, Mex. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was four years old. Quinn had a number of jobs before turning to acting in the 1930s; his first movie role was in 1936. Of Mexican-Indian and Mexican-Irish parentage, he was tall, swarthy, and powerfully built, and early in his career played dozens of Native American and outlaw roles. Thereafter, he was cast as a rugged ethnic or exotic of varying backgrounds. An actor who seemed to personify the life force, he played a dissolute Mexican in Kazan's Viva Zapata! (1952, Academy Award), an Italian strongman in Fellini's La Strada (1954), an intense Gauguin in Lust for Life (1956, Academy Award), a battered prizefighter in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), the charismatic Zorba in Zorba the Greek (1964; he toured with the musical stage version, 1982–83), and an Aristotle Onassis–like figure in The Greek Tycoon (1978). He made more than 100 additional films and appeared in several plays and television dramas. He was also an accomplished visual artist.

Bibliography

See his autobiographies, The Original Sin (1972) and One Man Tango (1995); biography by M. Amdur (1993); study by A. H. Marill and A. Kennedy (1975).

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Quinn, Anthony (Rudolph Oaxaca)

(born April 21, 1915, Chihuahua, Mex.—died June 3, 2001, Boston, Mass., U.S.) Mexican-born U.S. film actor. He began appearing in movies in 1936, initially playing bit parts as American Indians or ethnic characters. After appearing on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire, he returned to Hollywood, where he won Academy Awards for his supporting roles in Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust for Life (1956). He was noted for his earthy masculinity and acted in over 100 other films, notably Federico Fellini's La strada (1954), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), and Zorba the Greek (1964). Quinn was also a successful artist and sculptor.

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Quinn, Anthony (1915–  ) film actor; born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Of Irish-Mexican parentage, he grew up in the U.S.A., and after a few stage roles, he made his movie debut in Parole! (1936). For many years he was confined to small parts as an ethnic or exotic, usually as a menacing foreigner or Indian. The status of his roles changed when he won an Oscar for Viva Zapata (1952) and gained critical acclaim in Fellini's La Strada (1954), but his looks and manner kept him playing exotics, the most notable being Zorba the Greek (1964); he later appeared in a musical version of this and he starred in the television series, The Man and the City. He was also a serious painter for many years.

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Quinn, Anthony 

Born Apr. 21, 1916, in Chihuahua, Mexico. American motion-picture actor.

Quinn made his film debut in 1936. His first important role was the Mexican lynched in The Ox-Bow Incident (1943). He won world renown for his portrayal of Zampano in the Italian motion picture La Strada (1954). Eufemio in Viva Zapata! (1952) and Zorba in Zorba the Greek (1964) were among his other important roles.

Quinn has primarily portrayed primitive, intellectually undeveloped people. He has appeared in many Westerns and detective and suspense dramas.

REFERENCE

“Antoni Kuinn.” In Aktery zarubezhnogo kino, issue 4. [Leningrad, 1968.]