System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Anthony Quinn, Actor
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca
(April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001
To see Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek is to see him in his most famous work. But to see him in La Strada is to see him in a work of art. It is no violence to the man’s memory that Quinn will be remembered as the Greek life spirit rather than as the brutish Italian strong man. There was a little of the real Quinn in both roles, but there was a lot more to Quinn too.
Quinn, the Cliffs notes: Anthony Rudolph Oaxaca Quinn born in Chihuahua, son of an Irishman and an Aztec; father fights with Pancho Villa; family reunites in USA, become migrant workers, then settle in LA, where father works menial jobs for movie studio, dies early. Quinn somehow enough of an architectural prodigy to gain interview with Frank Lloyd Wright, who advises him to get operation to cure speech defect. Quinn preaches with Amy Semple McPherson, then tries acting. Appears in a play by Mae West, 1936, is befriended by John Barrymore. Barrymore gets him work as ethnic extra, often as Indian, in movies, including a Frank Capra number. Marries Capra’s daughter over Capra’s objection, 1937. Shocked at her lack of virginity on wedding night, nearly abandons her. Couple have four children, but he never forgives her, even while burning wide swath through Hollywood: Carole Lombard, Rita Hayworth, Indgrid Bergman and her daughter Pia Lindstrom, etc. First child drowns in W.C. Fields’ swimming pool 1941. Career builds. Viva Zapata! 1950: wins first Oscar. La Strada , 1954 (Oscar for Best Foreign Film). Lust for Life 1956: wins second Oscar. Requiem for a Heavyweight and Lawrence of Arabia 1962. Hits apex with Zorba in 1964, yet loses at Oscar to Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady . Success of Zorba leads to roles resembling Zorba the Italian, Zorba the Romanian, etc. Divorces, remarries, repeats. At least 13 children by five mothers. Career in semi-decline, does several-year-long traveling stage revival of Zorba, 1982. Art – paintings, sculpture – is hobby, but sells same. Ends with occasional movie and TV work, and two children late with secretary. Dies at age 86, respiratory failure.
Quinn published two books of memoirs, The Original Sin (1972) and One Man Tango (1995). Of the two, The Original Sin is by far the more interesting, and irritating, because it is basically an account of his psychoanalysis, much of it written as dialog with his therapist. In it he discusses in depth his revulsion at his wife’s lack of virginity and his general inability to be anybody but the loutish bully he appeared to be on screen. Except that he was a very introspective loutish bully. Much of the dialog is between Quinn and his 12-year-old alter-ego/id, “The Boy,” with whom he engages in interminable discourses. One of the most amusing episodes concerns his first intercourse. The probable copyright violation that follows is taken directly from The Original Sin .
Quinn at age 16 was living with his grandmother, struggling to make money in LA, and had recently given up boxing because he lacked a killer instinct. One day he entered a dance contest. At random, he ended up with a 24-year-old partner and they tangoed their way to a trophy. The woman took him home and despite Quinn’s shyness he got lucky:
The two were lying in bed.
