Background
Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá у Arcelay was born on March 9, 1940, in San Juan to an affluent family of accomplished professionals. His father, Raul, was a Puerto Rican engineer and his mother was Olga Arcelay.
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Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá у Arcelay was born on March 9, 1940, in San Juan to an affluent family of accomplished professionals. His father, Raul, was a Puerto Rican engineer and his mother was Olga Arcelay.
His family valued education and from an early age Juliá attended the prestigious Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, where he received an elite liberal arts education. Later in life, arts critics and the public were to compliment him on the quality of his spoken English. His mastery of the language was largely due to the fact that he had been educated at an insti-tution where classes were taught in English, and the strict priests and nuns who ran the college underscored the importance of teaching their Puerto Rican students good command of the language.
Juliá acquired a taste for the arts at an early age. When he was five, he played the Devil in a theatrical production at his school. The family, who until then had believed that Juliá was a shy and introverted child, was astounded by his extroverted and stellar performance; both his mother and the Catholic nuns who ran the college were impressed by his acting ability. He continued appearing in theatrical productions in the school and throughout San Juan during his youth and adolescent years; however, he was never considered a serious actor there. On graduation from high school, he enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. His family wanted him to become a lawyer, but he opted for theater instead.
In 1964 Juliá moved to New York to become an actor. On his arrival, Juliá found a job in the stage production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's La vida es sueño (Life Is a Dream) at the Astor Play House. His participation in this production enabled him to get an Actors Equity card, which made it possible for him to work as a professional actor. For three years he struggled working in diverse theatrical productions of minor relevance and working at odd jobs to support himself financially.
In 1967 he found backstage work with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. Papp eventually became his lifelong mentor, but for a time Juliá worked as on lighting and sets and finally as a house manager. After his work backstage, Juliá transitioned to an understudy and was finally given the chance to act by himself. His first production for the company was in the low-end mobile stage unit, where he played Macbeth in Spanish. He participated in scores of productions produced by Papp throughout the years. Some of them were Othello, The Taming of the Shreio, and King Lear. He also started to appear in some more mainstream productions such as The Cuban Thing.
Juliá's professional career escalated during the early 1970s. In 1971 he landed a role in the very successful television series Sesame Street, where he played the character of Raphael one of the first Latinos on the program. This character was his
introduction to American television, where he eventually appeared on the Bob Newhart Show, the soap opera Love of Life, and the television movie Death Scream. Throughout his career he underestimated television and disregarded its importance or artistic significance. While working in television he continued appearing in theater. Some of his more important theatrical credits of the time were in The Threepenny Opera, As You Like It, The Emperor of Late Night Radio, Hamlet, and Dracula. Established by then as a serious and talented actor, he received three Tony nominations during the 1970s.
During the 1980s Juliá was actively involved in both Broadway and Hollywood. He received his first Tony for his lead role as film producer Guido Contini in the musical Nine in 1981. He started to secure bigger and better roles in Hollywood. He participated in productions such as Tempest (1982), Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Tequila Sunrise (1988), and Romero (1985). His brilliant performances in both Kiss of the Spider Woman and Romero brought him wide recognition by American movie critics, who were impressed by his acting and by his magnificent vocal control. A man who always kept in touch with his island, Juliá also participated in several movies produced in Puerto Rico. The most important of which was La Gran Fiesta (1988) produced in the island by Zaga Films. He also maintained an active involvement with human rights and political causes during this period.
Juliá was known for his capacity for hard work. In 1990 he acted in three movies: Presumed Innocent (1990), Havana (1990), and The Rookie (1990). It was, without a doubt, his role as Gomez in The Addams Family (1991), and its sequel Addams Family Values (1993), that brought him not only stardom but also recognition as a popular face on the silver screen. His role as Don Quixote in the revival of the popular musical Man of La Mancha (1992) earned him great reviews for his singing voice. Together with pop singer Sheena Easton he displayed a formidable singing capacity and a voice that very few of his followers knew he had.
Juliá suffered a major stroke and died on October 24,1994. At the time, the popular media attributed his stroke to exhaustion and dehydration as a result of food poisoning while filming a movie in Mexico. What very few people knew was that the actor had cancer for some time and the stroke was a result of cancer complications. His widow, Merel Poloway, returned his body to Puerto Rico, where it was received at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. Juliá was given a state funeral and received national honors from the people of his beloved island.
Active International Hunger Project. Member Hispanic Organization Latin Actors.
A clever and interesting stage actor, Julia made plenty of films (some of them from strange corners and circumstances), but not enough that did him justice. He was seldom a convincing villain— comedy was a much more fruitful way of using him.
Married Merel Poloway, June 28, 1976.
