Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), better known by his stage name Anthony Quinn, was an American actor.
Born in Mexico to a Mexican mother and a first-generation Irish-Mexican father, he was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental virility" in numerous critically acclaimed films both in Hollywood and abroad.
Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca was born April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution to Manuela "Nellie" (née Oaxaca) and Francisco "Frank" Quinn.
Frank Quinn was born to an Irish immigrant father from County Cork and a Mexican mother.
Frank reportedly rode with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, then later moved to the East Los Angeles neighborhood of City Terrace and became an assistant cameraman at a movie studio.
In Quinn's autobiography, The Original Sin: A Self-portrait by Anthony Quinn, he denied being the son of an "Irish adventurer" and attributed that tale to Hollywood publicists.
Quinn later said he was not accepted in Mexico because of his surname.
When he was six years old, Quinn attended a Catholic church and even contemplated becoming a priest, but at the age of 11, he joined the Pentecostals at the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, which was founded and led by the evangelical preacher Aimee Semple McPherson.
For a time, Quinn played in the church's band and was an apprentice preacher with the evangelist.
"I have known most of the great actresses of my time, and not one of them could touch her," Quinn once said of the spellbinding McPherson, whom he credited with inspiring Zorba's gesture of the dramatically outstretched hand.
Quinn grew up first in El Paso, Texas, and later in East Los Angeles and in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, California.
He attended Hammel Street Elementary School, Belvedere Junior High School, Polytechnic High School, and Belmont High School in Los Angeles, with future baseball player and General Hospital star John Beradino, but left before graduating.
1936
After a short time performing on the stage, Quinn launched his film career performing character roles in the 1936 films The Plainsman (as a Cheyenne Indian after Custer's defeat with Gary Cooper), Parole (in which he made his debut), and The Milky Way, his first motion picture, although he was not credited.
1938
He played "ethnic" villains in Paramount films such as Dangerous to Know (1938) with Anna May Wong and Road to Morocco with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, and played a more sympathetic Crazy Horse in They Died with Their Boots On with Errol Flynn.
1941
A breakthrough in his career occurred in 1941, when he received an offer to play a matador in the bullfighting-themed Blood and Sand with Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth.
1942
In 1942, Quinn co-starred alongside Power in another critical and financial success, the swashbuckling adventure The Black Swan.
1943
In 1943, he had a role in the Oscar-nominated Western The Ox-Bow Incident.
1947
He co-starred in Sinbad the Sailor (1947) with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Maureen O'Hara.
By 1947, Quinn had appeared in more than 50 films and had played a variety of characters, including Indians, Mafia dons, Hawaiian chiefs, Filipino freedom fighters, Chinese guerrillas, and Arab sheiks.
He returned to the theater, replacing Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway.
In 1947, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
1950
He returned to Hollywood in the early 1950s, and was cast in a series of B-adventures such as Mask of the Avenger (1951).
In the late 1950s, Quinn traveled to Rome, where he collaborated with several renowned Italian filmmakers and established himself as a star of world cinema.
He worked with Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti in the Kirk Douglas film Ulysses, and starred as Attila the Hun, with Sophia Loren, in Attila.
1952
Quinn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice: for Viva Zapata! in 1952 and Lust for Life in 1956.
In addition, he received two Academy Award nominations in the Best Leading Actor category, along with five Golden Globe nominations and two BAFTA Award nominations.
He solidified his position as one of Hollywood's premier actors in Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! (1952), opposite Marlon Brando.
Quinn's performance as Zapata's brother won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor while Brando lost the Oscar for Best Actor to Gary Cooper in High Noon.
Quinn holds the distinction of being the first Mexican-American to win an Academy Award.
1954
His notable films include La Strada (1954), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Guns for San Sebastian (1968), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Across 110th Street (1972), The Message (1976), Lion of the Desert (1980), Jungle Fever (1991) and Seven Servants (1996).
1964
He also had an Oscar-nominated title role in Zorba the Greek (1964).
1987
In 1987, he was presented with the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award.
Through both his artistic endeavors and civil-rights activism, he remains a seminal figure of Latin-American representation in the media of the United States.
In June 1987, Tucson High School in Arizona awarded him an honorary high-school diploma.
As a young man, Quinn boxed professionally to earn money, then studied art and architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright at the designer's Arizona residence and his Wisconsin studio, Taliesin.
The two men became friends.
When Quinn mentioned that he was drawn to acting, Wright encouraged him.
Quinn said he had been offered $800 per week by a film studio and did not know what to do.
Wright replied, "Take it, you'll never make that much with me."
1999
During a 1999 interview on Private Screenings with Robert Osborne, Quinn said the contract was for only $300 per week.
