Milian, Thomas

Thomas Milian was born on March 3, 1933. The son of a Cuban general, a native of Havana . In 1956 he emigrated to the United States. Subsequently, he studied at the University of Miami in Florida, where, while studying English, he successfully passed tests to participate in a student production. Thanks to this, and also on the recommendation of the dean of the drama department, Milian decided to become an actor:

“I saw posters with my name,” recalls Milian, “and said to myself: What the hell am I doing here?” I'm wasting my time. ^[3]

Later, Milian left training and moved to New York, where he tried to enter an acting studio, but due to a lack of experience he did not succeed. Then Milian found a job as a lifter in a Presbyterian hospital, where he also did not stay long - he joined the naval forces, but because of a serious kidney disease, he served only six months in a training camp. ^[3] Without giving up hope of becoming an actor and having bought Stanislavsky’s book especially for entrance exams, Milian nevertheless entered the acting studio in New York .

Theater, first films

Having received the necessary acting experience in an acting studio, Milian first appears in several shows, and then gets his first role in the theater. The actor’s play was spotted by Jean Cocteau and composer Jean Carl Menotti. Menotti specially writes under Milian the pantomime Poet and muse , which was presented to the public in Italy at the Spoleto Festival, directed by Franco Zefirelli . The talent of Miliana is noticed by the director Mauro Bolognini , who offered him the role of a secondary plan in his 1959 film Stormy Night , and later in the drama Handsome Antonio 1960.

In my early years in Italy, ”recalls Milian,“ I played exclusively in intellectual cinema, which bored me a lot. ^[3]

Spaghetti Western Star

After the film “ Boccaccio 70 ” in 1962 he worked in Italy, became famous as a star of spaghetti westerns , playing mainly the characteristic roles of villains. In 1964, Milian starred in the movie Time of Indifference , and a year later took part in his first American film, Agony and Ecstasy . Among the spaghetti western films, Milian was involved in the paintings Freestyle Hunter (1966), Big Shootout (1967), Face to Face (1967) and Tepep (1968), where he played with Orson Wales. One of the most famous paintings by Milian in this direction was Django, shoot (1967) and Run, man, run (1969). In 1970, Milian plays in the next western - Companions , where the actor played the idealist revolutionary El Vasco. In addition to Milian, the cast included Franco Nero, Jack Palance and Fernando Rey . In 1972, a peculiar analogue of Bonnie and Clyde follows - a picture of Sonny and Jed , where Milian played the role of Jed, and the role of Sonny was played by Susan George ; in 1974 - Almost the man where Milian played the villain pursuing the daughter of a wealthy industrialist capitalist; in 1975 - White, yellow, black , where Eli Wallach also played.

In the same year, Milian works with Lucio Fulci on his film The Four Horsemen for the Apocalypse , playing the role of Chaco - one of the most negative characters in Milian's career ^[3] . In 1975 and 1976, Milian turned to criminal dramas - Silent Action and Cool Pointing respectively. Finally, from 1976 to 1984, the actor, at the invitation of Bruno Corbucci , takes part in 11 popular police thrillers.

Over the years, the actor managed to work with almost all the leading Italian directors, including Bernardo Bertolucci (“ Moon ”) and Michelangelo Antonioni (“ Identification of a Woman ”).

Relocation to the USA

In 1985, Milian moved to the United States, where he discovered that very few people knew about the films in which he starred. The producers took him only for secondary roles, albeit in fairly well-known films: “ John F. Kennedy. Shots in Dallas by Oliver Stone , Havana by Sidney Pollack , Amistad by Stephen Spielberg , Traffic by Stephen Soderbergh and other directors. Some success came to him after he played in Los Angeles in the play Ariel Dorfman's " Death and the Virgin ."