Happy 80th Birthday Tomas Milian

Tomás Quintin Rodriguez Milian was born on March, 3 1932 in Havana, Cuba. His father was Tomas Rodriguez, a general serving the dictatorship of Gerardo. After having problems in his childhood and having been the eyewitness of his father’s suicide he decided in 1955 to leave Cuba to become an actor in America. Arriving in Miami he worked in several small jobs before joining the Navy ,to get his American citizenship. He then journeyed to New York City and passed an audition at Elia Kazan's Actor's Studio, where he was taught the seminal "Stanislavskij method" of acting. After graduation he wanted to play bigger roles so he left the U.S.A. and went to Italy. Soon he was working with Italian art-house film directors and spent five years making what he called intellectual films. He wanted to return to the U.S. so to raise money for the trip he agree to apperar in a Euro-western by Sergio Sollima's “The Big Gundown” and then in Giulio Questi's infamous “Django Kill!” (both 1967). His career a huge boost and he became one of the leading actors of the genre. After the Spaghetti Western era ended he appeared in a number of crime films developing a character named Monnezza. Milian’s career eventually slowed down and he moved back to America, where he pursued a low-key career as a character actor. Now living in retirement in Miami we remember Tomás Milian on his 80^th birthday.