Tomas Milian

Tomas Milian (born Tomás Quintín Rodríguez; 3 March 1933 – 22 March 2017) was a Cuban American-Italian actor and singer, known for the emotional intensity and humour he brought to roles in Italian genre films.

A student of Lee Strasberg, Milian studied method acting at the Actors Studio in New York City. In Italy, he was discovered by director Mauro Bolognini and appeared in supporting roles in several drama films during the late-1950s and early-1960s, including as Raphael in Carol Reed's The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). Throughout the late-1960s and early-1970s, Milian established himself as a dynamic leading actor in a series of Spaghetti Western films, most notably The Big Gundown (1966), The Ugly Ones (1967), Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1967), Face to Face (1967), Run, Man, Run (1968), Death Sentence (1968), Tepepa (1969), Compañeros (1970), Sonny and Jed (1972), Life Is Tough, Eh Providence? (1972) and Four of the Apocalypse (1975).

Following a decline in the popularity of Spaghetti Westerns, Milian transitioned to roles in poliziottesco films. After receiving acclaim for his performance as a psychotic killer in Almost Human (1974), he made appearances in Emergency Squad (1974), The Tough Ones (1976), The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist (1977) and two film series - Bruno Corbucci's Nico Giraldi series (1976-1984, beginning with The Cop in Blue Jeans) and Umberto Lenzi's Er Monnezza films (1976-1980, beginning with Free Hand for a Tough Cop). He also appeared in other films during this period, including the giallo Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) and the non-genre films The Last Movie (1971), Luna (1979) and Identification of a Woman (1982). Since returning to the United States in 1985, Milian continued to perform supporting roles in film productions, including JFK (1991), Amistad (1997), Traffic (2000) and The Lost City (2005). Milian died in 2017.

Biography

Milian was born in Havana as the son of a Cuban general. His father was arrested and jailed: he later committed suicide on a New Year's evening. Milián then decided to leave Cuba and pursue his wishes of being an actor. He settled in the United States to study at New York's Actors Studio and later became an American citizen. In 1969, he became an naturalized Italian citizen.

Milian was bisexual; prior to his marriage to actress Margherita Valletti, he had relationships with both men and women.

After starting a career in the United States, he went to Italy in 1958 to take part to a theatre festival in Spoleto. He eventually decided to relocate to Italy, where he lived for over 25 years, becoming a very successful performer. His first film part in Italy was in the 1959 picture La notte brava. Although his voice was usually dubbed due to his accent, Milián performed his lines in Italian (or in English, depending on the film). He initially starred in arthouse movies and worked with directors such as Mauro Bolognini and Luchino Visconti.

After five years of making what he deemed "intellectual" movies, Milián was unhappy with his contract with producer Franco Cristaldi and thought of going back to the United States. Needing money to start over, he took the opportunity to star as a bandit in a spaghetti western called The Bounty Killer. The film boosted his career, and ultimately resulted in his staying in Italy. He became a star of the spaghetti western genre, where he often played Mexican bandits or revolutionaries, roles in which he spoke in his real voice. As the spaghetti westerns dwindled, Milián remained a star in many genre films, playing both villains and heroes in various polizieschi movies. He starred with Barbara Bouchet in the giallo Don't Torture a Duckling.

He later turned to comedy, playing the recurrent characters of petty thief Monnezza and Serpico-like police officer Nico Giraldi in a variety of crime-comedy pictures. Although his voice was dubbed most of the time by Ferruccio Amendola, Milián wrote his own lines in Roman slang. Milián's inventive use of romanesco (Roman dialect) made him a cult performer in Italy. Bruno Corbucci, the director of many of these films commented, "At the cinemas as soon as Tomás Milián appeared on the screen, when he made a wisecrack and in the heaviest situations, then it was a pandemonium, it was like being at the stadium."

As Milián used similar makeups and accents in portraying both characters, Monnezza and Nico were occasionally confused by Italian audiences, who sometimes referred erroneously to them both as Monnezza, or Er Monnezza (Da trash in slang), and still closely associate Milián with these performances.

Milián also appeared in non-genre pictures, such as Bernardo Bertolucci's La Luna, for which he won a Nastro d'Argento for Best supporting Actor, and Michelangelo Antonioni's Identification of a Woman.

As he grew older, Milián decided to go back to the United States. He appeared in Sidney Pollack's Havana, Steven Spielberg's Amistad, Steven Soderbergh's Traffic as well as Andy García's The Lost City, about Revolutionary Cuba. He has also played many roles on stage. In 2005, he portrayed Generalisimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina in the film version of Mario Vargas Llosa's novel The Feast of the Goat.

Milian was found dead from a stroke at his home in Miami on 22 March 2017.

Selected filmography

• Bad Girls Don't Cry (1959, Mauro Bolognini)
• Il bell'Antonio (1960, Mauro Bolognini)
• The Mishap (1960, Alberto Lattuada)
• Silver Spoon Set (1960, Francesco Maselli)
• A Day for Lionhearts (1961, Nanni Loy)
• Day by Day, Desperately (1961, Alfredo Giannetti)
• Boccaccio '70 (1962, Luchino Visconti)
• Disorder (1962, Franco Brusati)
• La banda Casaroli (1962, Florestano Vancini)
• Mare matto (1963, Renato Castellani)
• Time of Indifference (1965, Francesco Maselli)
• The Camp Followers (1965, Valerio Zurlini)
• Madamigella di Maupin (1965, Mauro Bolognini)
• The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965, Carol Reed)
• The Ugly Ones (1966, Eugenio Martin)
• The Big Gundown (1966, Sergio Sollima)
• Face to Face (1967, Sergio Sollima)
• Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1967, Giulio Questi)
• Bandits in Milan (1968, Carlo Lizzani)
• Death Sentence (1968, Mario Lanfranchi)
• Run, Man, Run! (1968, Sergio Sollima)
• A Fine Pair (1968, Francesco Maselli)
• Tepepa (1968, Giulio Petroni)
• The Conspiracy of Torture (1969, Lucio Fulci)
• Where Are You Going All Naked? (1969, Pasquale Festa Campanile)
• Compañeros (1970, Sergio Corbucci)
• Viva Cangaceiro (1970, Giovanni Fago)
• The Cannibals (1970, Liliana Cavani)
• The Designated Victim (1971, Maurizio Lucidi)
• The Last Movie (1971, Dennis Hopper)
• Don't Torture a Duckling (1972, Lucio Fulci)
• Sonny and Jed (1972, Sergio Corbucci)
• Ripped Off (1972, Franco Prosperi)
• Life Is Tough, Eh Providence? (1972, Giulio Petroni)
• Counselor at Crime (1973, Alberto De Martino)
• Emergency Squad (1974, Stelvio Massi)
• Almost Human (1974, Umberto Lenzi)
• Silent Action (1975, Sergio Martino)
• Syndicate Sadists (1975, Umberto Lenzi)
• The White, the Yellow, and the Black (1975, Sergio Corbucci)
• Four of the Apocalypse (1975, Lucio Fulci)
• Folle à tuer (fr) (1975, Yves Boisset)
• Sex with a Smile (1976, Sergio Martino)
• The Tough Ones (1976, Umberto Lenzi)
• The Cop in Blue Jeans (1976, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• The Twist (1976, Claude Chabrol)
• Hit Squad (1976, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• Young, Violent, Dangerous (1976, Romolo Guerrieri)
• The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist (1977, Umberto Lenzi)
• Free Hand for a Tough Cop (1977, Umberto Lenzi)
• Brothers Till We Die (1977, Umberto Lenzi)
• Destruction Force (1977, Stelvio Massi)
• Squadra antitruffa (1977, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• Little Italy (1978, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• The Gang That Sold America (1979, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• Assassinio sul Tevere (1979, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• La Luna (1979, Bernardo Bertolucci)
• Winter Kills (1979, William Richert)
• Il lupo e l'agnello (1980, Francesco Massaro)
• Delitto a Porta Romana (1980, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• Manolesta (1981, Pasquale Festa Campanile)
• Crime at the Chinese Restaurant (1981, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• Uno contro l'altro, praticamente amici (1981, Bruno Corbucci)
• Delitto sull'autostrada (1982, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• Identification of a Woman (1982, Michelangelo Antonioni)
• Monsignor (1982, Frank Perry)
• Cat and Dog (1982 Bruno Corbucci)
• Crime in Formula One (1983, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• Cop in Drag (1984, Bruno Corbucci), as Nico Giraldi
• Salome (1986, Claude d'Anna)
• Distant Lights (1987, Aurelio Chiesa)
• Cat Chaser (1989, Abel Ferrara)
• Revenge (1990, Tony Scott)
• Money (1991, Steven Hilliard Stern)
• JFK (1991, Oliver Stone)
• Frannie's Turn (TV, 1992, Sam Weisman)
• Nails (1992, John Flynn)
• The Burning Season (1994, John Frankenheimer)
• The Cowboy Way (1994)
• Amistad (1997, Steven Spielberg)
• Fools Rush In (1997, Andy Tennant)
• Traffic (2000, Steven Soderbergh)
• The Yards (2000, James Gray)
• The Hire: Ambush (short, 2001, John Frankenheimer)
• Washington Heights (2002)
• The Lost City (2005, Andy García)
• La fiesta del chivo, (2005, Luis Llosa)