Biography for
Tomas Milian More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

3 March 1932, Havana, Cuba

Birth Name

Tomás Quintín Rodríguez

Mini Biography

American actor born in Cuba; was trained at the Actor's Studio; was in a few plays on Broadway, as well as in a show by Cocteau in Spolene; Bolognini noticed him and that was the starting point of a rather rich cinematographic career in Italy, where he played in all genres. He interpreted a mad psychopath in Bounty Killer, a role he would then improve and diversify into an impressive gallery of neurotic and sadistic killers, first in Spaghetti-Westerns (many directed by B. Corbucci), and then in violent action and police thrillers (many by U. Lenzi). His films gradually evolved into action comedies, as he played the recurrent characters of thief "Monnezza" and cop Nico Giraldi (the latter being originally based on "Serpico"),two typically roman characters who enjoyed great popularity in the 70s and 80s.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Alain Morin

Spouse

Rita Valletti

(1964 - present) 1 child

Trivia

Father was a general under the Cuban dictatorship. In 1933 the dictatorship was overthrown and his father arrested. His father later committed suicide in 1945 in his home with Tomas as an eyewitness.

Influenced into the acting profession by James Dean after watching "East of Eden."

Discovered by director Mauro Bolognini after appearing on stage in Italy. Tomas began in Italian features playing sensitive, spoiled bourgeoisie.

After the tremendous success of Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" in 1964 starring Clint Eastwood, Tomas grubbed up his own image and propelled himself to stardom in likewise fashion with such classics as The Bounty Killer (1966) The Big Gundown (1967) with Lee Van Cleef, Face to Face (1967), Django Kill! (1967) and Run, Man, Run (1968).

In the 70s he specialized in playing lone-wolf anti-heroes in giallos and crime features. He started an extremely successful series of tough, violent films as the small time crook Er Monnezza (3 times) and Inspector Nico Giraldi (12 times).'

Returned to the US in the late 80s and has played ethnic bad guys for the most part.

In most of his Italian comedies from the 1970s, his voice was dubbed by Ferruccio Amendola, who provided a strong roman accent. However, Milian had real knowledge of roman slang and generally wrote his own lines.

Longtime friend of fellow actor Ray Lovelock.

One son, Tommaso (b.1982).

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