Paul Shenar

Albert Paul Shenar was born on February 12, 1936, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second of four sons of Mary Rosella (née Puhek) and Eugene Joseph Shenar. He had one older brother, John, and two younger brothers, Michael and Marc. Of Polish and Slovene descent, Shenar developed an early connection to the stage through Milwaukee playhouse productions. After completing high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force before returning to acting following his military service.

Shenar went on to become a prominent figure in American theater, film, and television, with a Broadway career spanning from 1965 to 1988. His stage credits included Macbeth, The Three Sisters, Tiny Alice, and Tartuffe. Beyond Broadway, he was one of twenty-seven founding members of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where he worked as an actor, director, and teacher, accumulating more than forty roles. Among those roles were Hamlet, Oedipus Rex, and Brother Julian in Tiny Alice.

On television, Shenar drew attention in the late 1970s for portraying larger-than-life historical figures: Orson Welles in The Night That Panicked America and Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., in Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women. He also appeared as John Carrington in Part II of the miniseries Roots. In 1982, he provided the voice of Jenner, the main antagonist in Don Bluth's animated film The Secret of NIMH. His work impressed Bluth sufficiently that the director sought to cast Shenar as Commander Borf in Space Ace, though budget constraints prevented this, and Bluth ultimately voiced the role himself.

In 1983, Shenar portrayed drug lord Alejandro Sosa in Brian De Palma's Scarface, a role that became among his most recognized screen performances. He later played Paulo Rocca in Raw Deal and appeared in several additional films during the late 1980s, including Best Seller (1987), The Bedroom Window (1987), and The Big Blue (1988), as well as the television film Rage of Angels: The Story Continues. He also staged a production of Macbeth in Los Angeles during this period.

In his personal life, Shenar was gay and was romantically involved with British actor Jeremy Brett from 1973 to 1978. The two remained close friends after their relationship ended. Shenar was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1983 and died from the disease on October 11, 1989, at the age of 53. His remains were cremated and entrusted to his executor, Thomas Wiley.