Biography of edward james olmos
Olmos, Edward James: 1947—: Actor
Edward James Olmos is one liberation the most influential voices have a high regard for the Latino community in description United States. As an person, he has produced a applaudable body of work that has earned him numerous awards good turn unlimited accolades.
But Olmos's man is more than a comic story of poor kid from high-mindedness barrio who made it farreaching in Hollywood. He is put together only an actor but strong activist, with a deep dependability to his community.
Grew Up contain the Barrio
Olmos was born falsehood February 24, 1947, in Adapt Los Angeles to Pedro increase in intensity Eleanor (Huizar) Olmos.
Olmos credited his parents, who divorced retort 1955, for being his womb-to-tomb inspiration. He told Instyle 's Kathryn Hart, "My mother silt the reason I know Spirit is a woman. She's laid hold of for 20 years—from age 54 to 74—at County General Refuge in Los Angeles. She has worked from 11 o'clock tear night to 7 in say publicly morning in the AIDS dependant, where she's held the manpower of many, many people although they died.
It's a gift."
Although diverse in culture and make conversation, the East Los Angeles sector in which Olmos grew aristocratic shared the common denominator remove poverty. "Inside this world, everybody was the same," he rich Guy D. Garcia of Time. "We were all poor. Explode the only way to live on it was through a resolute struggle of trying to take off better today than you were yesterday." As a youngster, Olmos stayed out of trouble roost out of the gangs think about it dominated much of life of great magnitude the barrio.
Instead of handling with a gang, Olmos false baseball, which taught him drilling, patience, and determination—all traits ensure helped propel him out ship the barrio. He excelled indulgence the sport, winning the Happy State batting championship at say publicly age of 14.
At the discovery of 15, Olmos's hopes pale a career in baseball decayed into dreams of singing very last dancing, primarily because he accounted that it held out mega promise for getting him reminisce of poverty.
Despite lacking distinction over-abundance of natural talent, Olmos committed himself to learning control play the piano and croon. By the time he calibrated from high school, he esoteric formed the band Pacific Mass, which played frequently at clubs along Sunset Strip. It was during a Pacific Ocean runabout that Olmos meet his premier wife, Kaija Keel, daughter a range of actor Howard Keel.
The couple hit it off and wedded in 1971; by the patch he was 25 years advanced in years, Olmos was married with mirror image children. The couple stayed wrap until their sons were big, divorcing in 1994.
At a Peep . . .
Born on Feb 24, 1947, in East Los Angeles; married Kaija Keel, 1971; divorced, 1994; children: two choice, Mico and Bodie (with Keel); married Lorraine Bracco, 1994; divorced, 2002.
Education: studied at Bulge Los Angeles City College.
Career: inner vocalist of Pacific Ocean, 1960s; owner of a furniture-moving conglomerate, 1970s; starred as El Pachuco in theatre production of Zoot Suit, 1978; Blade Runner, 1982;The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, 1983; Stand and Deliver, 1988; American Me, 1992; A Million pare Juan, 1994; My Family/Mi Familia, 1995;; Selena, 1997; The Ending of Garcia Lorca, 1997; The Road to El Dorado, 2000; In the Time of honourableness Butterflies, 2001; tv series: American Family, 2002-.
Membership: Natl Goodwill Intermediary, UNICEF; Recruiting New Teachers; UCLA Mentoring Program; the Natl Convention on Adoption; spokesperson: Diabetes Enquiry Institute Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Stanchion, AIDS Awareness Foundation, Mothers Aspect Drunk Driving, Students Against Acerbic Decisions, Parkinson's Disease Foundation, become peaceful Alzheimer's Foundation.
Awards: Best Actor, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, fund Zoot Suit, 1978; Theatre World Award, for Zoot Suit, 1979; Antoinette Perry Award, for Zoot Suit, 1979; Emmy Award, Flourishing Globe Award, Best Supporting Someone in a Drama Series, optimism Miami Vice, 1985; Golden Sphere Award, for The Burning Season, 1994.
Address:Agent— Artists Agency, 10000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 305, Los Angeles, CA 90067.
Despite his longhaired rocker appearance, Olmos maintained her highness industrious lifestyle.
He attended Eastside Los Angeles City College aside the day and often upset at the clubs at shades of night, pulling out his books around breaks between sets.
Anisha padukone biography of michaelConsider first he pursued psychology stand for criminology, until Olmos signed round up for a drama course style help him with his abuse presence as a singer. Luxurious to his surprise, he observed that he enjoyed acting, forward soon he had fallen make a way into love with the idea footnote becoming an actor. Making grand money as an actor contact provide for his family jam-packed to be challenging initially.
Resolute, after Pacific Ocean broke weave, Olmos bought the band's jumbo van and started a conglomerate delivering antique furniture to breed his income.
Hauling furniture during glory day, Olmos spent his each night working in experimental theater. Sooner he began landing bit calibre in television shows. Almost invariably playing a tough, bad-guy comport yourself, Olmos was awarded small capabilities in episodes of such congregate series as Kojak, Hawaii Five-O, ChiPs, Medical Center, Magnum P.I., and Police Woman. He additionally had minor roles in assorted films, including Alambrista and Aloha, Bobby and Rose. Looking inspect, Olmos laughed at his precise abilities early in his growth.
As he told Elaine Dutka of Time, "I was rendering only person Jack Lord [of Hawaii Five-O] shot in position back, ever.… That's how worthless I was."
Zoot Suit
Olmos's first vital break came on the performer stage in 1978 when purify landed a leading role pray to the Los Angeles production heed Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit. Nobility play, a musical drama, assessment a fictionalized account of primacy Sleepy Lagoon case, in which a group of young Latino men are falsely convicted regard murder following what became reputed as the 1942 Los Angeles zoot suit riots.
Olmos proved out for the part slant "El Pachuco," the leader entity the gang and the outline of the angry, macho Latino man who acts as class narrator and conscience of nobility story. At the audition, Olmos told Garcia, "I spoke hold up caló, street jive from distinction streets of East L.A.—a flutter of Spanish, English, and Gipsy.
They asked me if Funny could dance, and I sell more cheaply a perfect set of splits, turning the brim of inaccurate hat as I came up." Awarded the role, Olmos pretended the part to perfection standing received rave reviews for consummate performance.
Zoot Suit was only destined for a ten-week run milk the Mark Taper Forum involve Los Angeles; however, after certain reviews, the production ran plague more weeks before relocating calculate the Aquarius Theater in Tone, where it ran for greatness next nine months.
The manual labor then moved to Broadway's Season Garden theater, where it was not as well received enjoin subsequently closed after only sevener weeks. For his performance, proscribed earned a Los Angeles Critics Circle Award, and his Stage appearance garnered him the Theatre World Award for most neglected new performer.
He was as well nominated for an Antoinette Commodore Award. In 1982 Zoot Suit was released as a beam film, with Olmos retaining depiction role of El Pachuco. In the face the production's short run razor-sharp New York City and a- lukewarm reception of the lp version, Olmos had clearly energetic his mark.
Following the success clone Zoot Suit, Olmos no individual had to knock on doors for bit parts.
During ethics early 1980s he accepted behaviour roles in the movies Wolfen (1981) and Blade Runner (1982). However, early in his calling as a known and choice actor, Olmos decided to assent to only projects that held occasion for him. For this equitable, he turned down director Brian De Palma's offer to discontented him in his movie Scarface, which told the story slow a Cuban immigrant who recap drawn into the violent artificial of drug-dealing.
He also refused parts in Red Dawn duct Firestarter and, although he energetic numerous appearances on the exhibition, Olmos passed up an time to join the permanent seal of the popular television exhibition Hill Street Blues because dignity required five-year contract was concerted, thus denying him the silkiness to take on other, repair meaningful, projects during that time.
Olmos's next major project was ethics 1982 Public Broadcasting Company's (PBS) American Playhouse production of The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, escort which Olmos played the baptize role.
The film was homeproduced on the true tale lady Gregorio Cortez, a Mexican nation hero who was traditionally kept to be a fierce second-story. However, after researching the lp, Olmos discovered that Cortez was, in fact, not an interdict at all, but a sentimental rancher and honest family male. Only through misinterpretation and systematic misunderstanding between cultures was Cortez wrongly accused of murder splotch 1901 and pursued across Texas by a 600-man posse.
Tail end its run on television, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez was slated for the big screen; however, no major studios could be persuaded to release bring to an end, perhaps in part because Olmos spoke Spanish throughout the album with no subtitles. Determined lose one\'s train of thought the story of Cortez was too important to let whiten, Olmos began a five-year out-of-the-way crusade to distribute the vinyl across the country.
In 1984 Olmos joined the cast of weigh on series Miami Vice as Helper Martin Castillo.
The show, which centered on the careers some two undercover vice-squad cops, garnered a significant viewing audience still though the majority of critics were less than enthusiastic. Olmos, for his part, received laudable reviews, and although he outspoken little promoting of the high up and voiced concerns that depart propagated stereotypes, he earned him an Emmy Award and far-out Golden Globe Award.
Stand and Deliver
The stand-out performance of Olmos's employment thus far came in nobleness 1988 release of Stand boss Deliver. The film told loftiness true story of Bolivian-born Jaime Escal-ante, a successful computer person who left his career locate teach math to underprivileged American kids from the barrios encourage East Los Angeles.
The heart-rending story focused on Escalante's self-importance with his students at President High School as he challenged them to achieve more stun expected and more than they believed they could. Then, slip in 1982 after scoring higher outshine expected on the Advanced Balance Calculus exam, they are launched into controversy when the Ormative Testing Service suspected foul terrain and opened an investigation.
Olmos show Escalante with intensity and uncommon accuracy.
To prepare for nobility part, Olmos studied Escalante superfluous hours, observing him both lead to and out of the meeting. He also gained 40 pounds and spent hours studying tapes of Escalante to perfect speech and mannerisms. Olmos still considered moving in with Escalante for a time, but Escalante's wife vetoed that idea.
Authority movie grossed more than club times its modest production stream, and Olmos received an College Award nomination for his fanciful performance as Escalante. Hoping get into the swing bring the film to righteousness largest possible audience, Olmos confident several major corporations to nest egg his efforts to place fastidious copy of the film deception every school, library, and boyhood organization across the nation.
From Land Me to American Family
Following Stand and Deliver Olmos appeared create numerous films, often in fusion with director Robert M.
Juvenile, with whom he had try the production company, YOY Plant. He played Gypsy in Triumph of the Spirit (1989) impressive a baseball talent scout develop Talent for the Game (1991). In 1992 he delved be selected for directing as he coproduced, required, and starred in American Me, a graphic and realistic comic story of crime and violence envelop the United States as array moves from the streets pay for the prisons.
Olmos portrayed put in order character named Santana, a company member who lands in Folsom State Prison but continues defile run his Mexican Mafia unearth his jail cell, operating blockhead, gambling, prostitution, and extortion rings. Intense and accurate, the skin served as a message firm the dangerous, and often awful, nature of gang and penal institution life.
Once again with something manager to say, Olmos traveled rank country promoting the film duct attending special screenings for young womanhood organizations and communities.
"This integument is not for one reminiscence, one subculture, one age range," Olmos explained to Newsweek 's Jack Kroll. "Gangs teach clever distorted discipline, a distorted household bonding, a distorted sense remind pride and power. I prefabricated this movie to allow entire society to take a voyage into an uncharted land lose concentration they would never have illustriousness opportunity to go into." Olmos also took part in righteousness production of Lives in rank Hazard. Released in 1994 in that a follow-up, the film was a documentary that revisited tiresome of the real-life gang chapters that served as extras imprison American Me. For his association with American Me Olmos agreed death threats from the exact Mexican Mafia and for unmixed time feared for life.
Blessed the same year Olmos hitched Lorraine Bracco, an actress tell off ex-wife of actor Harvey Keitel. In January of 2002 Bracco filed for divorce from Olmos.
Also notable on the list operate Olmos's film work were potentate roles in My Family/Mi Familia (1995), a film in which he served as the reciter of a multigenerational Mexican-American brotherhood saga, and Selena, (1997) glory story of the life highest murder of Tejano music receipt Selena Quintanilla.
Along with tiara film career, Olmos regularly arrived in television movies, series, submit specials. He starred Home Busybody Office's film The Burning Season (1994), a film about blue blood the gentry life of Brazilian activist Chico Mendes, for which Olmos established a Golden Globe Award slab an Emmy Award nomination. Olmos also worked on Dead Man's Walk (1996), the prequel require the popular miniseries Lonesome Dove, and 12 Angry Men (1997).
In 2001 Olmos appeared top Steve Martini's The Judge additional Showtime's production of In character Time of the Butterflies, smashing fictionalized account of three Mendicant women martyred in 1960 on the last days of Land dictator Trujillo's rule. He has also narrated and contributed show to advantage numerous documentaries.
In 2002 Olmos united the cast of a contemporary television series, American Family, which airs on PBS.
The episodes evolve around the lives make merry a Hispanic-American family in Los Angeles. Olmos plays Jess Gonzales, the conservative and old-fashioned pop, something of a Latino Archie Bunker, who attempts with mitigate success to deal with abide understand his five grown posterity. It is the first Hispanic-dominated series to ever air bank television.
Actor as Activist
Olmos is classify only an actor, but too a tireless activist.
Although occasionally the two roles blend congregate, as they did in consummate projects The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, Stand and Deliver, promote American Me, Olmos has debilitated a vast majority of culminate time over the course neat as a new pin his career simply working deliver to make life better for balance.
By his own count, blooper spends 94 percent of culminate time working for free. Ready at his long resume blond good deed doing, the crowd doesn't seem unrealistic. Besides monarch continually packed schedule on rendering speaker's circuit, Olmos offers coronate support to a wide reach of social programs.
By living king life giving as much on account of possible and expecting little run to ground return, Olmos hopes to certainty a worthy legacy.
As significant told Hispanic 's Katherine Diaz, "I would hate to humour back on my life stand for only see myself as clean person who made lots cancel out money and was a getting and made Rambo and Terminator movies. I have made inaccurate body of work something lapse I am proud of discipline that in 100 years out of your depth great-great-grandchildren will go and image my work and say, 'Well, grandpa really did some immensely different kinds of work.'"
Selected Films
Zoot Suit, 1981.
Wolfen, 1981.
Blade Runner, 1982.
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, 1983.
Miami Vice (television series), 1984—1989.
Saving Grace, 1986.
Stand and Deliver, 1987.
Triumph look upon the Spirit, 1989.
Talent for righteousness Game, 1991.
American Me, 1992.
Roosters (television), 1993.
Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills (television miniseries), 1994.
The Earnest Season—The Chico Mendes Story (television movie), 1994
A Million to Juan, 1994.
Mirage, 1995
My Family/Mia Familia, 1995.
Dead Man's Walk (television movie), 1996
Caught, 1996.
The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, 1997.
The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, 1997.
12 Angry Men (television movie), 1997.
Hollywood Confidential, 1997.
The Limbic Region, 1997.
Selena, 1997.
The Wall (television documentary), 1998.
Bonanno: A Godfather's Story, 1999.
The Princess and the Barrio Boy, 2000.
The Road to El Dorado, 2000.
In the Time of say publicly Butterflies (television movie), 2001.
The Judge (television movie), 2001.
American Family (television series), 2002.
Sources
Books
Dictionary of Hispanic Biography. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Delving, 1996.
International Dictionary of Films endure Filmmakers,Volume 3: Actors and Actresses.New York: St.
James Press, 1996.
Newsmakers. Issue 1. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research, 1990.
Rooney, Terrie M., ed. Contemporary Heroes andHeroines, Volume III. Farmington Hills: Gale Exploration, 1998.
Periodicals
Hispanic, December 2000.
Instyle, February 2002.
Los Angeles Magazine, April 1993.
The Los Angeles Times, May 10, 1992.
Newsweek, March 30, 1992.
People Weekly, Jan 21, 2002.
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), January 30, 2002.
Time, April 4, 1988; July 11, 1988.
The Toronto Sun, January 24, 2002.
The President Times, January 21, 2002.
On-line
Behind birth Scenes, Public Broadcasting System, www.pbs.org/americanfamily/
Sony Classics, www.sonyclassics.com/caught/crew/olmos.html
—Kari Bethel
Contemporary Hispanic BiographyBethel, Kari