Monday, January 17, 2011

REMINISCING … ANTHONY QUINN

 

ANTHONY QUINN 001 

Anthony Quinn - a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer.

He starred in numerous critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, including Zorba the Greek, Lawrence of Arabia, and Federico Fellini's La strada. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice; for Viva Zapata! in 1952 and Lust for Life in 1956.

viva-zapata-movie-poster-1020413559

His big break came from playing opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! (1952). His supporting role as Zapata's brother won Quinn an Oscar. He was the first Mexican-American to win any Academy Award.

He appeared in several Italian films starting in 1953, turning in one of his best performances as a dim-witted, thuggish and volatile strongman in Federico Fellini's La strada (1954) opposite Giulietta Masina. Quinn won his second Oscar for Best Supporting Actor by portraying the painter Gauguin in Vincente Minnelli's Van Gogh biopic, Lust for Life (1956). The award was remarkable as he was onscreen for only 8 minutes.

lust-for-life-movie-poster-1020337097

The following year, he received a Oscar nomination for his part in George Cukor's Wild Is the Wind. In The River's Edge (1957), he played the husband of the former girlfriend (played by Debra Paget) of a killer (Ray Milland), who turns up with a stolen fortune and forces Quinn and Paget at gunpoint to guide him safely to Mexico.

No comments:

Post a Comment