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Anthony Quinn
Born Anthony Rudolfo Oxaca Quinn in Chihuahua, Mexico, on April 21, 1915, Quinn was the son of a half-Irish father and Mexican-Indian mother, raised in poverty as his family made the trek into America and eventually into the barrio of East Los Angeles.
By the time he turned 18, Quinn had already worked as a butcher, taxi driver, slaughterhouse worker, street-corner preacher and welterweight boxer, making up to $10 per fight.
Eventually he made his way into acting, appearing in a string of films for Paramount Pictures, including 1936's The Plainsman, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. A year later, the legendary filmmaker became Quinn's father-in-law, when he married DeMille's adopted daughter, Katherine.
The couple divorced in 1965, after Quinn fathered two children with Italian costume designer Yolanda Addolari. They married soon after, and remained together for 31 years. But that marriage began crumbling in 1993, when Quinn fathered a daughter with his secretary, Kathy Benvin. They didn't separate until 1995, and a bitter, public divorce officially ended things in 1997.
Quinn subsequently married Benvin. Later in life, Quinn's leading roles grew fewer, and the actor, frustrated that he had been typecast in the U.S., left Hollywood to work in Italy. "What could I play here? They only think of me as a Mexican, an Indian or a Mafia don," he told the Associated Press in 1977.
But he continued to appear in American films, more recently including the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick Last Action Hero, Spike Lee's Jungle Fever and A Walk In the Clouds with Keanu Reeves. Quinn’s signature role was as Zorba in the hit musical ZORBA THE GREEK (1964) for which he was Oscar-nominated.
Quinn's other passion was for art and sculpture…he pursued his dreams of being an artist and sculptor, and he would often wander around Selznick Studios (where his father secured a job) and draw portraits of stars like Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks. Quinn was a student and friend of Frank Lloyd Wright.
He had not only shown his work at international exhibitions, but he also amassed a substantial art collection, including an original Picasso, said to be worth millions.
As many films as he appeared in and careers he had, Quinn's personal life was equally busy:
The actor had 13 children (nine sons and four daughters), but Quinn said he ultimately was happy with the life he dreamed of as a boy. "I never satisfied that kid but I think he and I have made a deal now," he told the Associated Press in 1987. "It's like climbing a mountain: I didn't take him up Mount Everest, but I took him up Mount Whitney. And I think that's not bad."
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