Biography and best films, of the famous actor..Anthony Quinn

 

15.Heller in Pink Tights

Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn

Released: 1960

Directed by: George Cukor

Heller In Pink Tights is a 1960 Technicolor western film adapted from Louis L’Amour’s novel, Heller with a Gun. It stars Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn and was directed by George Cukor.

14.Lust for Life

Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn

Released: 1956

Directed by: Vincente Minnelli, George Cukor

Lust for Life is a MGM biographical film about the life of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, based on the 1934 novel by Irving Stone and adapted by Norman Corwin. It was directed by..

13.Viva Zapata!

Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn

Released: 1952

Directed by: Elia Kazan

Viva Zapata! is a 1952 biographical film starring Marlon Brando and directed by Elia Kazan. The screenplay was written by John Steinbeck, using as a guide Edgcomb Pinchon’s book, Zapata..

12.The Guns of Navarone

Gregory Peck, David Niven

Released: 1961

Directed by: J. Lee Thompson, Alexander Mackendrick

The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 British-American action/adventure film directed by J. Lee Thompson. The screenplay by producer Carl Foreman was based on Alistair MacLean’s 1957..

11.Guns for San Sebastian

Charles Bronson, Anthony Quinn

Released: 1968

Directed by: Henri Verneuil

Guns for San Sebastian is an 1968 French action-adventure film based on the 1962 novel A Wall for San Sebastian, written by Rev. Fr. William Barnaby “Barby” Faherty, S.J. The film is directed..

10.Barabbas

Sharon Tate, Ernest Borgnine

Released: 1961

Directed by: Richard Fleischer

Barabbas is a 1961 religious epic film expanding on the career of Barabbas, from the Christian Passion narrative in the Gospel of Mark and other gospels. The film stars Anthony Quinn as..

9.La Strada

Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina

Released: 1954

Directed by: Federico Fellini

La Strada is a 1954 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini from his own screenplay co-written with Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The film portrays a brutish strongman and the naïve..

8.Warlock

Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn

Released: 1959

Directed by: Edward Dmytryk

Warlock is a 1959 film, released by Twentieth Century Fox and shot in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope. It is a Western adapted from the novel by Oakley Hall. Directed by Edward..

7.Zorba the Greek

Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates

Released: 1964

Directed by: Michael Cacoyannis

Zorba the Greek is a 1964 British-Greek drama film directed by Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis and starring Anthony Quinn as the title character. It is based on the novel Zorba the Greek by..

6.Blood and Sand

Rita Hayworth, Anthony Quinn

Released: 1941

Directed by: Rouben Mamoulian

Blood and Sand is a Technicolor film produced by 20th Century Fox, directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth, and Alla Nazimova. It is..

5.Lawrence of Arabia

Omar Sharif, Peter O’Toole

Released: 1962

Directed by: David Lean

Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British epic adventure drama film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel. The film stars Peter..

4.Last Train from Gun Hill

Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn

Released: 1959

Directed by: John Sturges

Last Train from Gun Hill is a 1959 Western by action director John Sturges. It stars Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones and Earl Holliman. Douglas and Holliman had previously..

3.A Walk in the Clouds

Keanu Reeves, Debra Messing

Released: 1995

Directed by: Alfonso Arau

A Walk in the Clouds is a 1995 American romantic drama film directed by Alfonso Arau and starring Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Giancarlo Giannini, and Anthony Quinn. Written by..

2.Revenge

Kevin Costner, Madeleine Stowe

Released: 1990

Directed by: Tony Scott

Revenge is a 1990 romantic thriller film directed by Tony Scott, starring Kevin Costner, Anthony Quinn, Madeleine Stowe, Miguel Ferrer and Sally Kirkland. Some scenes were filmed in Mexico.

1.Seven Servants

Anthony Quinn, Audra McDonald

Released: 1996

Directed by: Daryush Shokof

Seven Servants is a USA — Germany co-production 1996 German drama — comedy film directed by Daryush Shokof. The movie is about a man named Archie, portrayed by Anthony..

Anthony Quinn

Biography

Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, and the rest of his family was Mexican.

After starting life in extremely modest circumstances in Mexico, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he grew up in the Boyle Heights and Echo Park neighborhoods. He played in the band of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson as a youth and as a deputy preacher. He attended Polytechnic High School and later Belmont High, but eventually dropped out. The young Quinn boxed (which stood him in good stead as a stage actor, when he played Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire” to rave reviews in Chicago), then later studied architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright at the great architect’s studio, Taliesin, in Arizona. Quinn was close to Wright, who encouraged him when he decided to give acting a try. Made his credited film debut in Parole! (1936). After a brief apprenticeship on stage, Quinn hit Hollywood in 1936 and picked up a variety of small roles in several films at Paramount, including an Indian warrior in The Plainsman (1936), which was directed by the man who later became his father-in-law, Cecil B. DeMille.

As a contract player at Paramount, Quinn’s roles were mainly ethnic types, such as an Arab chieftain in the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope comedy, Road to Morocco (1942). As a Mexican national (he did not become an American citizen until 1947), he was exempt from the draft. With many other actors in military service during WWII, he was able to move up into better supporting roles. He married DeMille’s daughter Katherine DeMille, which afforded him entrance to the top circles of Hollywood society. He became disenchanted with his career and did not renew his Paramount contract despite the advice of others, including his father-in-law, with whom he did not get along (whom Quinn reportedly felt had never accepted him due to his Mexican roots; the two men were also on opposite ends of the political spectrum) but they eventually were able to develop a civil relationship. Quinn returned to the stage to hone his craft. His portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire” in Chicago and on Broadway (where he replaced the legendary Marlon Brando, who is forever associated with the role) made his reputation and boosted his film career when he returned to the movies.

Brando and Elia Kazan, who directed “Streetcar” on Broadway and on film (A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)), were crucial to Quinn’s future success. Kazan, knowing the two were potential rivals due to their acclaimed portrayals of Kowalski, cast Quinn as Brando’s brother in his biographical film of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, Viva Zapata! (1952). Quinn won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for 1952, making him the first Mexican-American to win an Oscar. It was not to be his lone appearance in the winner’s circle: he won his second Supporting Actor Oscar in 1957 for his portrayal of Paul Gauguin in Vincente Minnelli’s biographical film of Vincent van Gogh, Lust for Life (1956), opposite Kirk Douglas. Over the next decade Quinn lived in Italy and became a major figure in world cinema, as many studios shot films in Italy to take advantage of the lower costs (“runaway production” had battered the industry since its beginnings in the New York/New Jersey area in the 1910s). He appeared in several Italian films, giving one of his greatest performances as the circus strongman who brutalizes the sweet soul played by Giulietta Masina in her husband Federico Fellini’s masterpiece La Strada (1954). He met his second wife, Jolanda Addolori, a wardrobe assistant, while he was in Rome filming Barabbas (1961).

Alternating between Europe and Hollywood, Quinn built his reputation and entered the front rank of character actors and character leads. He received his third Oscar nomination (and first for Best Actor) for George Cukor’s Wild Is the Wind (1957). He played a Greek resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation in the monster hit The Guns of Navarone (1961) and received kudos for his portrayal of a once-great boxer on his way down in Rod Serling’s Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962). He went back to playing ethnic roles, such as an Arab warlord in David Lean’s masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and he played the eponymous lead in the “sword-and-sandal” blockbuster Barabbas (1961). Two years later, he reached the zenith of his career, playing Zorba the Greek in the film of the same name (a.k.a. Zorba the Greek (1964)), which brought him his fourth, and last, Oscar nomination as Best Actor. The 1960s were kind to him: he played character leads in such major films as The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) and The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969). However, his appearance in the title role in the film adaptation of John Fowles’ novel, The Magus (1968), did nothing to save the film, which was one of that decade’s notorious turkeys.

In the 1960s, Quinn told Life magazine that he would fight against typecasting. Unfortunately, the following decade saw him slip back into playing ethnic types again, in such critical bombs as The Greek Tycoon (1978). He starred as the Hispanic mayor of a southwestern city on the short-lived television series The Man and the City (1971), but his career lost its momentum during the 1970s. Aside from playing a thinly disguised Aristotle Onassis in the cinematic roman-a-clef The Greek Tycoon (1978), his other major roles of the decade were as Hamza in the controversial The Message (1976) (a.k.a. “Mohammad, Messenger of God”); as the Italian patriarch in The Inheritance (1976); yet another Arab in Caravans (1978); and as a Mexican patriarch in The Children of Sanchez (1978). In 1983, he reprised his most famous role, Zorba the Greek, on Broadway in the revival of the musical “Zorba” for 362 performances (opposite Lila Kedrova, who had also appeared in the film, and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance). His career slowed during the 1990s but he continued to work steadily in films and television, including an appearance with frequent film co-star Maureen O’Hara in Only the Lonely (1991).

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