Raul Julia

Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay was born on March 9, 1940, in Floral Park, a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Raúl Juliá Sr., an electrical engineer and Trine University graduate, and Olga Arcelay, a mezzo-soprano who sang in a church choir. The eldest of his siblings, Julia grew up in a Catholic household that followed strict Jesuit practices, including taking homeless children into the family home. His mother later received recognition from the Catholic University of Ponce for these efforts. A great-aunt, María González, was credited by Julia as the primary inspiration for his artistic pursuits. His paternal lineage traced back to Francisco Juliá Brell, from Barcelona, Spain, who had settled in Manati, Puerto Rico, in 1834.

Julia's interest in acting emerged early. Enrolled at Colegio Espíritu Santo in Hato Rey, he played the devil in a first-grade production and went on to participate in every subsequent school play. After watching Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood, he resolved to pursue acting as a career. By seventh grade he was fluent in English and had developed a deep interest in Shakespeare. At Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, where he completed his secondary education, he organized productions of Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Tempest. He spent a year at Fordham University in New York City before returning to Puerto Rico to attend the University of Puerto Rico, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree and joined the Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity, as his father had before him.

While continuing to act in local plays and nightclubs, Julia concluded that a law career — the path his parents preferred — held no interest for him. He began performing in San Juan productions, including a staging of La Vida es un Sueño and a restaging of Macbeth held in one of the city's colonial castles. During this period he was approached by actor and entertainer Orson Bean, who was vacationing in Puerto Rico and encouraged Julia to move to New York City. His departure was delayed by the death of his younger brother Rafael in a traffic collision. In 1964, at the age of 24, Julia traveled to New York, arriving during a winter storm. He took acting lessons from Wynn Handman, who had been recommended by Bean, in a class that also included Christopher Walken. To cover his expenses, Julia worked a variety of odd jobs before securing his Actors' Equity card through a production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's Life Is a Dream. After hiring manager Jeff Hunter, he landed a role in Bye Bye Birdie and declined further financial support from his parents. He performed with Phoebe Brand's mobile theatre, presenting plays in low-income neighborhoods throughout New York. In 1965, he married Magda Vasallo Molinelli.

Julia's New York career advanced when producer Joseph Papp noticed his work and offered him a place in the New York Shakespeare Festival. He also performed with the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. In 1978, he starred alongside Meryl Streep in a revival of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew at the Delacorte Theater. His Broadway career spanned from 1968 to 1992 and encompassed a wide range of productions. He received four Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical nominations, for Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1972, Where's Charley? in 1975, The Threepenny Opera in 1977, and Nine in 1982. In 1972 he also received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. He appeared in the original Broadway production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal in 1979, and in revivals of Design for Living in 1984, Othello in 1991, and Arms and the Man. His final Broadway role was in Man of La Mancha in 1994.

On screen, Julia built a substantial career across film and television. He appeared in The Panic in Needle Park in 1971, One from the Heart in 1982, The Morning After in 1986, Romero in 1989, Presumed Innocent in 1990, and Street Fighter in 1994. He received Golden Globe Award nominations for Tempest in 1982, Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1985, and Moon Over Parador in 1988. He became widely recognized for portraying Gomez Addams in two film adaptations of The Addams Family. In 2017, The Daily Telegraph named him among the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.

Julia died on October 24, 1994, after suffering a stroke, following several health afflictions that year. He was posthumously awarded a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his work in The Burning Season.