RIP Tomás Milián

Tomas Milian has died

The actor had just turned 84 years old. Best known for playing Sergio Marazzi, said "Er Rubbish"

3/23/2017

He died yesterday in Miami, Florida, Tomas Milian stage name of Tomás Quintín Rodríguez Milián. The actor was born in Cuba, near Havana, March 3, 1933. He lived for many years in the U.S. but was best known in Italy where, despite having worked with artists such as Lattuada, Visconti or Maselli, was primarily remembered for his participation in westerns and detective films where he impersonated the inspector Nico Giraldi and the dishonest Sergio Marazzi, called "Er Rubbish".

Tomas Milian is growing in the small village of Cutono near Havana. The family was part of the rich Catholic bourgeoisie. His father was the general Emiliano Rodríguez, in service to the dictator Gerardo Machado. His mother was the niece of a Havana Cardinal.

At 16 Tomas decided to become a professional singer. So, he finished high school, leaving Cuba and left for Florida. He chose Miami and enrolled at the Academy Theatre. In 1958, at age 25, he moved to New York. He attended the Actor's Studio founded by Elia Kazan (and then directed by Lee Strasberg). Meanwhile working as a dishwasher, gas station attendant, parking valet: anything to stay alive as he tried to become an actor. Simultaneously he perfects his English, commitment which allows him to hone his acting skills and earned him an engagement on Broadway. Starting with some minor productions, which are worth the attention of NBC, who were looking for new faces for a television series called Decoy (1957- 58). Directed by Michael Gordon, it is his springboard.

Tomas Milian, at the end of the fifties, he was noticed by the French film director Jean Cocteau, who gives him his debut at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto (with the pantomime Le Poète et la Muse, directed by Franco Zeffirelli). And that's where the actor's life is bound to Italy. Milian began working with directors like Michelangelo Antonioni and Bernardo Bertolucci. So, he moved to Italy (getting citizenship in 1969)

Milian returns to the theater in the following years, but he intendeds to establish himself as a film performer reciting during 40 years of activity over a hundred titles, mostly made in Italy. It is in the cinema that he immediately takes the name Tomas Milian.

He made his Italian debut with “La notte brava” (1959) by Mauro Bolognini, quickly establishing itself as one of the most gifted actors of his generation. “Ne I delfini”, by Maselli was made the following year, Milian plays effectively the cynical Alberto De Matteis, intended for marriage to his Fedora girlfriend (Claudia Cardinale). Milian returns to be directed by Bolognini who entrusted him with the role of Edward, the cousin of the protagonist (played by Marcello Mastroianni) in “The bell'Antonio” (1960). With Milian intelligence moves away from the role of the young and rich bourgeois who was in danger of becoming a cliché for him, providing other demonstrations of his talent and the ability to adapt with flexibility to different parts.

In fact, a year later we find him in “The Unexpected” by Alberto Lattuada, and “Giorno per giorno disperatamente” by Alfredo Giannetti, in which he shows his skills as a schizophrenic. In that period Milian is called by some of the most interesting actor by directors who appreciate his talents. His filmography is enriched with titles such as “La banda Casaroli” by Florestan Vancini, Il lavoro, by Visconti an episode of the collective film “Boccaccio '70”. Here Milian gives life to the arid and mean Count Ottavio, the unfaithful husband of the beautiful Dolls (Romy Schneider). The collaboration with Francesco Maselli is raised with “Gli indifferenti” (1964) in the role of unrealistic Michele, an interpretation, which earned him the award "Cinema and Literature" in Agrigento.

Born: 3/3/1933, Cutono, Cuba

Died: 3/22/2017, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.

The Big Gundown – 1966 (Manuel 'Cuchillo' Sanchez)

Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! - 1966 (Barney Bunton /The Stranger/Django)

Death Sentence – 1967 (O’Hara)

Face to Face – 1967 (Solomon 'Beauregard' Bennet)

The Ugly Ones – 1967 (José Gómez)

Blood and Guns – 1968 (Jesus Maria “Tepepa” Moran)

Run, Man, Run - 1968 (Manuel 'Cuchillo' Sanchez)
Compañeros! – 1970 (El Vasco)

Life Is Tough, Eh Providence? - 1972 (Provvidenza/Providence)

Sonny and Jed – 1972 (Jed Trigado)

Another Try, Eh Providence? - 1973 (Provvidenza/Providence)

Four of the Apocalypse - 1975 (Chaco)

The White, the Yellow, the Black – 1975 (Sakura)