<Archive Obituaries> Raul Julia (October 24th 1994)
Bill Schenley
On Stage And Screen, Raul Julia's Short Career Was
Distinguished By Bravery, Curiosity And A Willingness To Take Chances.
Photo: http://www.cigarros-puros.com/images/rauljulia.jpg
FROM: The Orange County Register (October 25th 1994) ~
By Paul Hodgins, Staff Writer
It's the eyes we'll remember.
All descriptions of Raul Julia inevitably were fixated on them.
Sensual, hooded, unnaturally large, they were his calling card _
capable of expressing emotions both coarse and subtle, terrifying
and beautiful, base and sublime.
Those eyes, along with his tall, 6-foot-1-inch frame and
strikingly handsome face, endowed the Puerto Rican actor with all
the standard equipment for conventional stardom.
But fortunately for film and theater fans, Julia was not a
conventional actor. His artistic bravery, curiosity and talent
combined to form a stage, TV and film career as distinguished by
its unusual diversity as its many memorable roles.
That career was cut tragically short Monday when Julia died of
complications from a stroke suffered two weeks ago. He was 54.
Family members were by his side at North Shore Hospital in
Manhasset, a Long Island suburb of New York.
The eldest child of a prosperous Puerto Rican restaurateur,
Julia discovered his calling when he played the devil in a
first-grade class play. Like many shy children, Julia found acting
emotionally liberating.
"It was a marvelous experience," he recalled in 1978. "I became
. . . possessed. "
Ignoring his parents' wishes to study law, Julia headed to New
York in 1964 after receiving his liberal arts degree at the
University of Puerto Rico. Over the next two decades he carved out
an enviable stage career, specializing in Shakespearean roles and
musical theater.
In 1966, Julia began a long association with Joseph Papp, whose
productions of Shakespeare in Central Park served as a laboratory
for some of the most talented young actors of the day. Among his
memorable portrayals are Proteus in a musical version of "The Two
Gentlemen of Verona" (1971), Orlando in "As You Like It" (1973),
Petruchio to Meryl Streep's Kate in "The Taming of the Shrew"
(1978) and the title role in "Othello" (1979).
"I revere Shakespeare," Julia said. "I love the rhythm, the
music, the poetry. I make it my own . . . I become a poet . . . and
I just see Shakespeare smiling at me. "
Important non-Shakespearean roles included Mack the Knife in
"The Threepenny Opera" (1976), a role he repeated on film; Lopakhin
in "The Cherry Orchard" (1977) and "Dracula" (he replaced Frank
Langella in the title role on Broadway in 1979 after starring in a
popular touring production).
Julia's film career came comparatively late, and he never lost
his love for the theater. "I want to feel an audience, not forget
it," he said. After small roles in "The Panic in Needle Park"
(1971) and "The Organization Man" (1971), Julia landed major roles
in "The Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978) and "The Escape Artist" (1982).
More memorable film roles came later: a tormented South American
political prisoner in "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1985), and
eccentric, romantic Gomez Addams in "The Addams Family" (1991) and
its sequel, "Addams Family Values" (1993).
Other films include "Romero" (1989), in which he played the
assassinated Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero; "Tequila Sunrise";
"Havana"; "Moon over Parador"; and "The Rookie. "
Sometimes criticized for his choice of stage and film roles,
Julia responded that he believed variety made a life more
interesting, and he dismissed those critics who attacked him for
doing the "Addams Family" movies.
"It's a relief to play Gomez," Julia said. "I like variety. No,
I love variety, and no actor wants to do the same kind of work all
the time. As rewarding as these dramas are, the comedies need to be
a part of the mix.
"I'm so serious in so many of my films. . . . It's fun to romp
in the fields once in awhile. "
Even when his role choices seemed blatantly commerical, Julia
remained idealistic about his art, and he retained a strong belief
in the public's intelligence and taste.
"(Film executives) forget that human beings are not dumb, and
human beings want to see humanity, human feelings and profundity of
emotions," he said. "They go to the movies and they take what
they're given, but people really want to see themselves more. "
Health Suffered During Filming Of HBO's 'The Burning Season'
By Barry Koltnow, Staff Writer
Raul Julia's health suffered during the shooting of his last film,
HBO's "The Burning Season," in which he played Chico Mendes, the
hero of the struggle to save the Brazilian rain forest. Television
critics and fans alike were alarmed by the actor's gaunt, haggard
appearance on film.
"The Burning Season" was shot in the jungles of Mexico, and
Julia and director John Frankenheimer said it was one of the most
difficult film experiences they had encountered.
"We had to deal with food poisoning, scorpions, snakes and
rats," the director said. "The crew members were falling like flies
and we almost killed poor Raul. "
The actor said he had to be hospitalized for food poisoning
during the filming and suffered significant weight loss. At the
time of the interview, he looked frail but insisted he was healthy.
"I like being thin," he said of his decision to keep the weight
off. "I assure you I am not ill. "
Theater
Titus Andronicus, 1967
No Exit, 1967
You Own Thing, 1968
The Persians, 1970
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1971
Hamlet, 1972
Where's Charley, 1974
The Threepenny Opera, 1976
Nine, 1982
Arms and the Man, 1985
Man of La Mancha, 1992
Films
Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me, 1971
The Panic in Needle Park, 1971
The Gumball Rally, 1976
Eyes of Laura Mars, 1978
Tempest, 1982
The Escape Artist, 1982
One From the Heart, 1982
Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1985
Compromising Positions, 1985
The Morning After, 1986
La Gran Fiesta, 1987
Tango Bar, 1988
The Penitent, 1988
Moon Over Parador, 1988
Tango Bar, 1988
Tequila Sunrise, 1988
Romero, 1989
Mack the Knife, 1989
A Life of Sin, 1990
Presumed Innocent, 1990
The Rookie, 1990
Havana, 1990
Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound, 1990
The Addams Family, 1991
The Plague, 1992
Addams Family Values, 1993
Television:
Sesame Street, 1971
The Richest Man in the World: The Story of Aristotle Onassis, 1988
The Burning Season, 1994
---
Photo:
http://www.puertorico-herald.org/images/2000/06-raulCollage.jpg
---
Raul Julia, Broadway And Hollywood Actor, Is Dead At 54
FROM: The New York Times (October 25th 1994) ~
By Mel Gussow
Raul Julia, an actor who distinguished himself in classics on Broadway
and off and also became a success in Hollywood movies, died yesterday
at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. He was 54 and
lived in Manhattan.
The cause was complications of a stroke on Oct. 16, said Alice Siegel,
a hospital spokeswoman.
A versatile and fearless performer, Mr. Julia could be dashingly
romantic, authoritative or broadly comic with equal facility.
Although he was known to millions of moviegoers as Gomez, the father
in the ghoulish comedy "The Addams Family" and its sequel, "Addams
Family Values," that role was preceded by a long, rewarding career in
the theater. For several decades he was a leading actor with the New
York Shakespeare Festival.
In 1971, he won his first fame as the love-struck Proteus in the
modern musical version of "Two Gentlemen of Verona." Subsequently he
played the title role in "Othello," as well as comic characters like
Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew" (opposite Meryl Streep).
Repeatedly he shattered typecasting, acting in plays by George Bernard
Shaw, Noel Coward, Jean-Paul Sartre and Harold Pinter, while also
having a major career in Broadway musicals.
Mr. Julia delivered one of his most acclaimed performances in Hector
Babenco's 1985 film "The Kiss of the Spider Woman." He played
Valentin, the political prisoner, opposite William Hurt.
A man of strong humanistic convictions, he was active in political and
social causes like the Hunger Project. He sometimes chose roles for
their political content, as in "Romero," a film about Oscar Arnulfo
Romero, the liberal archbishop of El Salvador who was assassinated in
1980. His most recent appearance was as Chico Mendes, the Brazilian
labor-union martyr, in "The Burning Season," a movie that was
broadcast on HBO in September.
Raul Rafael Carlos Julia y Arcelay was born in San Juan, P.R., on
March 9, 1940. After graduating from the University of Puerto Rico, he
worked as an actor while also performing in a nightclub act. In 1964,
he moved to New York, making his debut Off Broadway in a
Spanish-language production of Calderon's "Life Is a Dream."
Until he met Joseph Papp, Mr. Julia found it difficult to find roles.
His first for the New York Shakespeare Festival under Mr. Papp was
Macduff in a Mobile Theater production of "Macbeth." Several years
later, still stymied in the advancement of his career, he pleaded with
Mr. Papp for work and was hired as a house manager. He then edged his
way back into acting.
A major turning point was his performance in the musical of "Two
Gentlemen of Verona," which opened at the Delacorte Theater in Central
Park and then moved to Broadway. Nightly in the summer, after
finishing his role in that show, he would hurry to Central Park to
play the fop Osric in the last act of "Hamlet."
Later, he played Orlando in "As You Like It," Edmund the Bastard to
James Earl Jones's King Lear (the first time Mr. Julia had played such
an unsympathetic character) and on to Othello, in 1979. His Othello
was a man of passion as well as a man of action. He also portrayed
Prospero in "The Tempest" and the title role in "Macbeth."
One of his most challenging roles was Mack the Knife in Richard
Foreman's experimental version of "The Threepenny Opera" at Lincoln
Center in 1976. Speaking about that performance, for which he was
nominated for a Tony Award, he said he acted with "a constant nervous
energy, like a bomb about to explode." In a quick change of pace, he
followed that musical with "The Cherry Orchard" for Andrei Serban,
playing the boorish landowner Lopakhin.
He worked with ease in musicals and drama, on Broadway and in
Shakespeare in the park. On Broadway he starred in the musicals
"Where's Charley?" and "Nine," in which he played a film director (a
variation on Federico Fellini) besieged by the women in his life. He
also had the distinction, such as it was, of playing a heroic garbage
man in outer space in "Via Galactica," a Galt MacDermot musical that
lasted one night on Broadway. Years later, he led a Broadway revival
of "Man of La Mancha."
Mr. Julia took over the title role in the Edward Gorey version of
"Dracula," revealing a macabre side later put to good advantage in the
"Addams Family" films. In 1980, he co-starred with Blythe Danner and
Roy Scheider on Broadway in Harold Pinter's "Betrayal," and five years
later he played Sergius in Shaw's "Arms and the Man," with Kevin Kline
and Glenne Headly, at Circle in the Square.
Frequently he took time away from his stage career to act in movies.
His films included "The Eyes of Laura Mars," "The Escape Artist,"
Francis Ford Coppola's "One From the Heart," Paul Mazursky's version
of "The Tempest," "Compromising Positions," "The Rookie" and "Havana."
And in the 1988 television mini-series "Onassis: The Richest Man in
the World," he stretched credibility as a tall, handsome Aristotle
Onassis.
In the 1990 film "Presumed Innocent," he played Sandy Stern, the
lawyer who defended the character played by Harrison Ford.
Once, speaking about acting, he admitted that he did not always know
what worked for him. "Sometimes it's an instinct," he said, "sometimes
it's an intellectual idea, and you have to be willing to make a fool
of yourself." When asked to do something difficult, his response was
to plunge in. He would say "I'll do it" and "find out later if I could
do it," he added. In reflecting on his career, he always credited Mr.
Papp as mentor for giving him "the opportunity to play all those great
roles."
His first marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, Merel
Poloway; two sons, Raul Sigmund and Benjamin Rafael; his mother, Olga
Arcelay of Puerto Rico; and two sisters, Maria Eugenia Julia of Mexico
City and Olga Maria Julia of Valencia, Spain.
---
Photo: http://www.cair.it/public/raoul%20julia.jpg
---
Actor With An Activist Spirit
FROM: The Guardian (October 26th 1994) ~
By Mark Tran and Ronald Bergan
Actor Raul Julia, who has died aged 54, moved successfully between
Broadway and Hollywood, but was best known for starring in the Addams
Family films, as a Latin American revolutionary in The Kiss of the
Spider Woman and with Harrison Ford in Presumed Innocent. In his most
recent film, Burning Season - made for HBO cable - Julia played the
murdered Brazilian union leader and environmentalist, Chico Mendes. A
social activist, Julia was drawn to figures who fought for the
down-trodden, portraying Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was murdered in
San Salvador's cathedral during El Salavador's vicious civil war. In
March, Julia went to El Salvador as an international observer to
monitor the elections.
Julia started his career as a Shakesperean stage actor, spending
several years in Joe Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival productions
and returned regularly to the stage. In February, he starred in
Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha. "There is always a danger of
getting soft and comfortable," he said at the time. "It can be very
comfortable to lie down on the laurels of something that has worked
for you in the past."
Julia acquired his activist spirit from his parents, reasonably
prosperous members of the middle class in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His
father was a restaurateur who introduced pizza to the island. "My
mother would take in children to our house to live with us. That set
an example for me." More recently, he became involved with the Hunger
Project, using his celebrity to promote the goal of eradicating hunger
by the year 2000. In 1992, he and his wife, Merel, paid for a
full-page ad in the New York Times urging politicians to follow up
their pledges made at the World Summit for Children in 1991, when 71
world leaders gathered at the United Nations.
Julia expressed frustration at missing out on leading roles
tailor-made for his latin background, such as the character played by
Robert de Niro in The Mission; he was also overlooked for the film of
Isabel Allende's House of Spirits. Ironically, he achieved box office
success in The Addams Family, a lightweight comedy.
Ronald Bergan writes:
Although Raul Julia made appearances in four films in the
seventies, a decade in which he spent his time building
his reputation on stage and TV - Shakespeare by night and Sesame
Street by day - it was only in the eighties, when Hollywood became
aware of a large native Hispanic audience, that his popularity in
movies grew. However, he was more concerned with model roles than
being a role model, and alternated between positive and negative
images of Latin types. Thus, he projected dignified strength in the
title role of the ill-fated El Salvadorian archbishop in Romero
(1989), and was Harrison Ford's brilliant lawyer in Presumed Innocent
(1990), but had no qualms in playing greasy villains in Moon Over
Parador (1988), and the gangster nemesis of Clint Eastwood's cop in
The Rookie (1990).
He successfully submerged his Latino persona as Dr Victor Frankenstein
in Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound (1990). "I am a scientist, I
cannot sin," he said, playing it straight.
It was his Tony-nominated roles on Broadway in the musical Nine and as
Mack the Knife in the Threepenny Opera that brought him to the
attention of Francis Coppola, who cast him in the $ 25 million musical
flop One From the Heart (1982). As a romantic waiter, a revisionist
latin lover, Julia almost managed not to be overwhelmed by the
gigantic Las Vegas set.
His portrayal of Valentin, the stoical political prisoner in Kiss of
the Spiderwoman (1985) was bound to be overshadowed by the
Oscar-winning performance of William Hurt, his flamboyant cell-mate in
a Latin American prison. But Julia's dark, brooding, macho performance
acts as a perfect foil, gradually developing a kind of love for the
limp-wristed Scheherazade.
Raul Julia, who had previously revealed only glimpses of a flair for
comedy, was hilariously hammy as the head of The Addams Family (1991).
His premature death has robbed audiences of further demonstrations of
his versatility.
Raul Julia, born March 9, 1940; died October 24, 1994
---
Photos: http://www.magic-hippo.com/julia/bigpics/shock.jpg
http://phoenixinn.iwarp.com/startrek/profiles/raul_Julia.jpg
http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2002/fyi/news/09/03/profile.julia/vert.julia.jpg
Raul Julia in art: http://www.merylstreeponline.net/tame.jpg
(w/Meryl Streep)
deb...@comcast.net
mill...@intergate.com
It was a shock right now to find out he's dead!