(OTP) RIP Anthony Quinn
Paul Duca
Actor Anthony 'Zorba' Quinn Dead at 86
June 3, 2001 6:52 pm EST
By Leslie Gevirtz
BOSTON (Reuters) - Actor Anthony Quinn, the two-time Academy Award
winning movie star known for his portrayal of earthy characters with a
zest for
life, died on Sunday in a Boston hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.
He
was 86.
The spokeswoman at Brigham and Women's hospital told reporters he died
at
9:29 a.m. but declined to give the cause of death or any further
information.
Quinn lived life as large as the characters he portrayed including
perhaps his best known role as
the title character in the 1964 film "Zorba the Greek."
He has appeared in more than 100 movies and has fathered 13 children by
five women -- three
of whom he married.
Quinn won two Academy Awards for best supporting actor, one for his
1952 role as a Mexican
revolutionary in "Viva Zapata!" and another four years later for his
portrayal of the French
painter Paul Gauguin in the film "Lust for Life."
Quinn was best known for his memorable portrayal of the title character
in "Zorba the Greek".
For Quinn, Zorba was more than just a film role.
"I am Zorba," Quinn once said of the hero of the movie, a worldly
wise Greek who lived life to
the fullest.
Like Zorba, Quinn's life was painted on a broad canvas, ranging from an
impoverished childhood
in Mexico and Los Angeles to the pampered luxury of a Hollywood star
and noted artist.
He was born on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, where his
half-Irish father Francisco
(Frank) Quinn had married a Mexican girl of Aztec Indian ancestry,
Manuela, while fighting for
revolutionary leader Pancho Villa.
The family moved to El Paso, Texas, and three years later to Los
Angeles in search of work.
Quinn was raised in a poor district of Los Angeles and never forgot his
past.
As a teen-ager, he underwent minor tongue surgery to improve his speech
and afterwards took
voice lessons at a Los Angeles drama school, paying the fee by cleaning
windows and floors. He
began appearing in stage productions at 18.
Mae West gave Quinn his first big chance on stage in the play "Clean
Beds" which she financed
and produced. His part was a take-off of John Barrymore, then an aging
actor fading from the
limelight.
Quinn's first screen role -- a 45-second appearance -- came in the film
"Parole" in 1936.
He went on to appear in such movies as "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962),
"Guns of Navarone"
(1961) and "La Strada" (1954).
"To me, acting...(is) living," he once said. "I love to live, so I
live. I love to act, so I act. I gotta
have vitality."
More recently he has appeared in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever," the Arnold
Schwarzenegger film
"Last Action Hero," and opposite Keanu Reeves in "A Walk in the
Clouds."
Quinn married Iolanda Addolori, an Italian teacher who was a wardrobe
mistress on "La Strada,"
in 1966 after his first marriage, to Katherine De Mille, daughter of
director Cecil B. De Mille,
ended in divorce.
Addolori and Quinn finalized a bitter divorce in 1997. He subsequently
married Kathy Benvin,
then 35.
He is the father of nine sons and four daughters by his three wives and
three mistresses.
Along the way he managed to amass an estate valued in the hundreds of
millions of dollars,
including an art collection that boasts an original Picasso. He also
became a noted impressionist
painter and sculptor.
Jonah Falcon
Jonah Falcon
Don't call me Zorba
"Paul Duca" <toms...@mediaone.net> wrote in message
news:3B1AECB8...@mediaone.net...
Jacob C.
As a teen-ager, he underwent minor tongue surgery to improve his speech
and afterwards took
voice lessons at a Los Angeles drama school, paying the fee by cleaning
windows and floors.
>>>>
And not many people are aware of this, but for a short time Quinn studied at
the Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship....in fact, it was there that someone figured
out why he couldn't speak clearly and got him in to see a surgeon.