Peter Lorre (German: [ˈpεtɐ ‘lɔʁə]; born László Löwenstein, pronounced [ˈlaːsloːˈløːvɛ(n)ʃtɒjn]; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before moving to Germany where he worked first on the stage, then in film in Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lorre caused an international sensation in the Weimar Republic-era film M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang, in which he portrayed a serial killer who preys on little girls.

Of Jewish descent, Lorre left Germany after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. His second English-language film, following the multiple-language version of M (1931), was Alfred Hitchcock‘s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), made in the United Kingdom.^[1][2] Eventually settling in Hollywood, he later became a featured player in many Hollywood crime and mystery films. In his initial American films, Mad Love and Crime and Punishment (both 1935), he continued to play murderers, but he was then cast playing Mr. Moto, the Japanese detective, in a B-picture series.

From 1941 to 1946, he mainly worked for Warner Bros. His first film at Warner was The Maltese Falcon (1941), the first of many films in which he appeared alongside actors Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet. This was followed by Casablanca (1942), the second of the nine films in which Lorre and Greenstreet appeared together. Lorre’s other films include Frank Capra‘s Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and Disney‘s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). Frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner, his later career was erratic. Lorre was the first actor to play a James Bond villain as Le Chiffre in a TV version of Casino Royale (1954). Some of his last roles were in horror films directed by Roger Corman.

In 2017, The Daily Telegraph named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.^[3]

Early life[edit]

Lorre was born László Löwenstein (Hungarian: Löwenstein László) on June 26, 1904, the first child of Alajos Löwenstein and his wife Elvira Freischberger, in the Hungarian town of Rózsahegy in Liptó County (German: Rosenberg; Slovak: Ružomberok, now in Slovakia). His parents, who were German-speaking Jews, had only recently moved there^[a] following his father’s appointment as chief bookkeeper at a local textile mill. Alajos also served as a lieutenant in the Austrian Army Reserve, which meant that he was often away on military maneuvers.^[4][5]

László’s mother died when he was four years old, leaving Alajos with three very young sons, the youngest several months old. He soon married his wife’s best friend Melanie Klein, with whom he had two more children. However, Lorre and his stepmother never got along, and this colored his childhood memories.^[4] At the outbreak of the Second Balkan War in 1913, anticipating that this would lead to a larger conflict and that he would be called up, Alajos moved the family to Vienna. He served on the Eastern Front during the winter of 1914–15, before being put in charge of a prison camp due to heart trouble.^[6][7]

Acting career[edit]

In Europe (1922–1934)[edit]

Lorre began acting on stage in Vienna aged 17, where he worked with Viennese Art Nouveau artist and puppeteer Richard Teschner. He then moved to Breslau and later to Zürich. In the late 1920s, the actor^[8] moved to Berlin, where he worked with Bertolt Brecht, including a role in Brecht’s Man Equals Man and as Dr. Nakamura in the musical Happy End.

The actor became much better known after director Fritz Lang cast him as child-killer Hans Beckert in M (1931), a film reputedly inspired by the Peter Kürten case.^[9] Lang said that he had Lorre in mind while working on the script and did not give him a screen test because he was already convinced that Lorre was perfect for the part.^[10] The director said that the actor gave his best performance in M and that it was among the most distinguished in film history.^[11] Sharon Packer observed that Lorre played the “loner, [and] schizotypal murderer” with “raspy voice, bulging eyes, and emotive acting (a holdover from the silent screen) [which] always make him memorable.”^[9] In 1932, Lorre appeared alongside Hans Albers in the science fiction film F.P.1 antwortet nicht about an artificial island in the mid-Atlantic.

When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Lorre took refuge first in Paris and then London,^[when?] where he was noticed by Ivor Montagu, associate producer for The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), who reminded the film’s director, Alfred Hitchcock, about Lorre’s performance in M. They first considered him to play the assassin in the film, but wanted to use him in a larger role despite his limited command of English at the time,^[12] which Lorre overcame by learning much of his part phonetically.

Michael Newton wrote in an article for The Guardian in September 2014 of his scenes with Leslie Banks in the film: “Lorre cannot help but steal each scene; he’s a physically present actor, often, you feel, surrounded as he is by the pallid English, the only one in the room with a body.”^[13] After his first two American films, Lorre returned to England to feature in Hitchcock’s Secret Agent (1936).^[14] Lorre and his first wife, actress Celia Lovsky, boarded a Cunard liner in Southampton on July 18, 1934, to sail for New York a day after shooting had been completed on The Man Who Knew Too Much, having gained visitor’s visas to the United States.^[15]

First years in Hollywood (1935–1940)[edit]

Lorre settled in Hollywood and was soon under contract to Columbia Pictures, which had difficulty finding parts suitable for him. After some months employed effectively for research, Lorre decided that the 1866 Russian novel Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, would be a suitable project with himself in the central role. Columbia’s head Harry Cohn agreed to make the film adaptation on the condition that he could lend Lorre to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, possibly as a means of recouping the cost of Lorre not appearing in any of his films.^[16]

For MGM’s Mad Love (1935), set in Paris and directed by Karl Freund, Lorre’s head was shaved for the role of Dr. Gogol, a demented surgeon. In the film, Gogol replaces the wrecked hands of a concert pianist with those of an executed knife throwing murderer. An actress who works at the nearby Grand Guignol theater, who happens to be the pianist’s wife, is the subject of Gogol’s unwelcome infatuation.^[17] “Lorre triumphs superbly in a characterization that is sheer horror”, The Hollywood Reporter commented. “There is perhaps no one who can be so repulsive and so utterly wicked. No one who can smile so disarmingly and still sneer. His face is his fortune”.^[18]

Lorre followed Mad Love with the lead role in Crime and Punishment (also 1935) directed by Josef von Sternberg. “Although Peter Lorre is occasionally able to give the film a frightening pathological significance,” wrote Andre Sennwald in The New York Times on the film’s release, “this is scarcely Dostoievsky’s drama of a tortured brain drifting into madness with a terrible secret.”^[19] Columbia offered him a five-year contract at $1,000 a week, but he declined.^[20]

Returning from England after appearing in a second Hitchcock picture (Secret Agent, 1936), he was offered and accepted a 3-year contract with 20th Century Fox.^[20] Starring in a series of Mr. Moto movies, Lorre played John P. Marquand‘s character, a Japanese detective and spy. Initially positive about the films, he soon grew frustrated with them. “The role is childish,” he said, and eventually tended to angrily dismiss the films entirely.^[21] He twisted his shoulder during a stunt in Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939),^[22] the penultimate entry of the series. In 1939, he attended a lunch at the request of some visiting Japanese officials; Lorre wore a badge that read “Boycott Japanese goods.”^[23]

Late in 1938, Universal Pictures wanted to borrow Lorre from Fox for the top-billed titular role ultimately performed by Basil Rathbone in Son of Frankenstein (1939) starring Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster and Bela Lugosi as Ygor. Lorre declined the role because he thought his menacing parts were now behind him, although he was ill at this time.^[24] He had tested successfully in 1937 for the role of Quasimodo in an aborted MGM version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, according to a Fox publicist one of two roles Lorre most wanted to play (the other was Napoleon).^[25] By now, frustrated by broken promises from Fox, Lorre had managed to end his contract.

After a brief period as a freelance, he signed for two pictures at RKO in May 1940.^[26] In the first of these, Lorre appeared as the anonymous lead in the B-picture Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), reputedly the first film noir.^[27] The second RKO film, also in 1940, was You’ll Find Out, a musical comedy mystery vehicle for bandleader Kay Kyser in which Lorre spoofed his sinister image alongside horror stars Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.^[28]

Mainly at Warner Bros. (1941–1946)[edit]

In 1941, Lorre became a naturalized citizen of the United States.^[29] Director John Huston effectively ended a period of decline for the actor and saved him from more B-pictures by casting him in The Maltese Falcon.^[30][31] Although Warner Bros. were lukewarm about Lorre at first, Huston was keen for him to play Joel Cairo. Huston observed that Lorre “had that clear combination of braininess and real innocence, and sophistication… He’s always doing two things at the same time, thinking one thing and saying something else.”^[31] Lorre himself reminisced fondly in 1962 about the “stock company” he now found himself working with: Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Claude Rains. In his view, the four of them had the rare ability to “switch an audience from laughter to seriousness.”^[32] Lorre was contracted to Warner on a picture-by-picture basis until 1943 when he signed a five-year contract, renewable each year, which lasted until 1946.^[30]

The year after Maltese Falcon, he portrayed the character Ugarte in Casablanca (1942). While Ugarte is a small part, it is he who provides Rick with the “Letters of Transit”, a key plot device. Lorre made nine movies with Sydney Greenstreet counting The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, a team which came to be called “Little Pete-Big Syd”, although they did not always have much screen time in joint scenes.^[33] Most of these motion pictures were variations on Casablanca, including Background to Danger (1943, with George Raft); Passage to Marseille (1944), reuniting them with Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains; The Mask of Dimitrios (1944); The Conspirators (1944, with Hedy Lamarr and Paul Henreid); Hollywood Canteen (1944); Three Strangers (1946), a suspense film about three people who are joint partners on a winning lottery ticket, with third-billed Lorre cast against type by director Jean Negulesco as the romantic lead, also starring Geraldine Fitzgerald; and Greenstreet and Lorre’s final film together, suspense thriller The Verdict (1946), director Don Siegel‘s first feature, with Greenstreet and Lorre finally billed first and second, respectively.

Lorre returned to comedy with the role of Dr. Einstein in Frank Capra‘s version of Arsenic and Old Lace (released in 1944) starring Cary Grant and Raymond Massey. Writing in 1944, film critic Manny Farber described what he called Lorre’s “double-take job”, a characteristic dramatic flourish “where the actor’s face changes rapidly from laughter, love or a security that he doesn’t really feel to a face more sincerely menacing, fearful or deadpan.”^[34]

Lorre’s last film for Warner was The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), a horror film in which he played a crazed astrologer who falls in love with a character played by Andrea King. Daniel Bubbeo, in The Women of Warner Brothers, thought Lorre’s “wildly over-the top performance” had “elevated the movie from minor horror to first-rate camp.”^[35]

Lorre said his continuing friendship with Bertolt Brecht, in exile in California since 1941, had led studio head Jack L. Warner to ‘graylist’ him, and his contract with Warner Bros. was terminated on May 13, 1946. Warner would be a “friendly” witness at his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee in May 1947.^[36] Lorre himself was sympathetic to the short-lived Committee for the First Amendment, set up by John Huston and others, and added his name to advertisements in the trade press in support of the committee.^[37]

After World War II (1947–1964)[edit]

After World War II and the end of his Warner contract, Lorre’s acting career in Hollywood experienced a downturn,^[38] whereupon he concentrated on radio and stage work. In 1949 he filed for bankruptcy.^[39] In the autumn of 1950, he traveled to West Germany to make the film noir Der Verlorene (The Lost One, 1951) which Lorre co-wrote, directed and starred in. According to Gerd Gemünden in Continental Strangers: German Exile Cinema, 1933–1951, with the exception of Josef von Báky‘s Der Ruf (The Last Illusion, 1949), it is the only film by an emigrant from Germany which uses a return to the country “addressing questions of guilt and responsibility; of accountability and justice.” While it gained some critical approval, audiences avoided it and it did badly at the box office.^[40]

In February 1952, Lorre returned to the United States,^[40] where he resumed appearances as a character actor in television and feature films, often parodying his “creepy” image. He was the first actor to play a James Bond villain^[14] when he portrayed Le Chiffre in a 1954 television adaptation of Ian Fleming‘s novel Casino Royale, opposite Barry Nelson as an American James Bond referred to as “Jimmy Bond”. Lorre starred alongside Kirk Douglas and James Mason in 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (1954) around this time. Lorre appeared in NBC‘s espionage drama Five Fingers (1959), starring David Hedison, in the episode “Thin Ice”, and, in 1960, in Rawhide as Victor Laurier in “The Incident of the Slavemaster” and in Wagon Train as Alexander Portlass in “The Alexander Portlass Story”. Lorre appeared in six episodes of Playhouse 90^[41] as well as two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents broadcast in 1957 and 1960, the latter a version of the Roald Dahl short story “Man from the South” starring Steve McQueen,^[38] Lorre and McQueen’s wife Neile Adams. He had a supporting role in the film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961).

In Lorre’s last years, he worked with Roger Corman on several low-budget films, including two of the director’s Edgar Allan Poe cycle: Tales of Terror (1962) with Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone; and The Raven (1963), again with Price, as well as Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson. He again worked with Price, Karloff and Rathbone in the Jacques Tourneur-directed The Comedy of Terrors (1963). He also appeared in a memorable 1962 episode of Route 66, Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing, with Lon Chaney Jr. and Boris Karloff.

Marriages and family[edit]

Lorre was married three times: Celia Lovsky (1934 – March 13, 1945, divorced); Kaaren Verne (May 25, 1945 – 1950, divorced) and Anne Marie Brenning (July 21, 1953 – March 23, 1964, his death). In 1953, Brenning bore Lorre’s only child, Catharine. Anne Marie Brenning died in 1971. His daughter later made headlines after serial killer Kenneth Bianchi confessed to police investigators that he and his cousin and fellow “Hillside Strangler” Angelo Buono, posing as undercover police officers, had stopped her in 1977 with the intent of abduction and murder, but let her go on learning that she was the daughter of Peter Lorre. It was only after Bianchi was arrested that Catharine realized whom she had met.^[42] Catharine died of complications from diabetes, on May 7, 1985, aged 32.^[43]

Failing health and death[edit]

Lorre had suffered from chronic gallbladder troubles, for which doctors had prescribed morphine. Lorre became trapped between the constant pain and addiction to morphine to ease the problem. It was during the period of the Mr. Moto films that Lorre struggled with and overcame his addiction.^[44] Having quickly gained 100 lb (45 kg) and not fully recovering from his addiction to morphine, Lorre suffered personal and career disappointments in his later life.^[41]

He died in Los Angeles on March 23, 1964, from a stroke.^[45] His body was cremated and his ashes were interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood. Vincent Price read the eulogy at his funeral.^[46]

Legacy and honors[edit]

Lorre was inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats, the world’s oldest theatrical fraternity, in 1942.^[47] Being Warner Bros. cartoonists favorite characterization, Lorre was made into cartoon form, being seen in Looney Tunes and as a fish in Horton Hatches the Egg. Lorre was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6619 Hollywood Boulevard in February 1960.

Actor Eugene Weingand, who was unrelated to Lorre, attempted in 1963 to trade on his slight resemblance to the actor by changing his name to “Peter Lorie”, but his petition was rejected by the courts. After Lorre’s death, however, he referred to himself as “Peter Lorre Jr.”, claiming to be Lorre’s son.^[48] He obtained a few small acting roles as a result, including a brief uncredited appearance as a cab driver in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Torn Curtain (1966) starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.

Filk songwriter Tom Smith (1988) wrote a tribute to Lorre’s acting called “I Want to Be Peter Lorre”, which was nominated for the “Best Tribute” Pegasus Award in 1992 and 2004, and which won the award for “Best Classic Filk Song” in 2006.^[49]

Punk cabaret band The World/Inferno Friendship Society‘s 2007 album Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre’s Twentieth Century is a concept album written as a tribute to Lorre, focusing on the transition from Weimar Germany to the Third Reich, and Lorre’s later career and death. The World/Inferno Friendship Society’s lead singer Jack Terricloth describes Lorre as “a strangely charismatic, extremely creepy person, which I think most punk rockers can identify with … It’s the lure of the other. He’s the underdog, the outsider.”^[50]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Yaphet Kotto

Yaphet Frederick Kotto (born Frederick Samuel Kotto; November 15, 1939 – March 15, 2021) was an American actor for film and television. He starred in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999) as Lieutenant Al Giardello. His films include the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), the science-fiction action film The Running Man (1987), the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973), in which he portrayed the main villain Dr. Kananga, and the comedy thriller Midnight Run (1988) opposite Robert De Niro.

Early life[edit]

Kotto was born Frederick Samuel Kotto in New York City.^[4] His mother, Gladys Marie, was an American nurse and U.S. Army officer of Panamanian and West Indian descent. His father, Yaphet Avraham Kotto (who was, according to his son, originally named Njoki Manga Bell), was a businessman from Cameroon who emigrated to the United States in the 1920s.^[4] Kotto’s father was raised Jewish and his mother converted to Judaism. The couple separated when Kotto was a child, and he was raised by his maternal grandparents.^[5][6][7][8]

Career[edit]

By the age of 16, Kotto was studying acting at the Actors Mobile Theater Studio, and at 19, he made his professional acting debut in Othello. He was a member of the Actors Studio in New York. Kotto got his start in acting on Broadway, where he appeared in The Great White Hope, among other productions.^[9]

His film debut was in 1963, aged 23, in an uncredited role in 4 for Texas.^[10] He performed in Michael Roemer‘s Nothing but a Man (1964) and played a supporting role in the caper film The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).^[11] He played John Auston, a confused Marine Lance Corporal, in the 1968 episode “King of the Hill”, on the first season of Hawaii Five-O.^[12]

In 1967 he released a single, “Have You Ever Seen the Blues” / “Have You Dug His Scene” (Chisa Records, CH006).^[13]

In 1973 he landed the role of the James Bond villain Mr. Big in Live and Let Die, as well as roles in Across 110th Street and Truck Turner. He played a police officer, Richard “Crunch” Blackstone, in the 1975 film Report to the Commissioner. Kotto portrayed Idi Amin in the 1977 television film Raid on Entebbe. He starred as an auto worker in the 1978 film Blue Collar. The following year he played Parker in the sci-fi–horror film Alien. He followed with a supporting role in the 1980 prison drama Brubaker. In 1983, he guest-starred as mobster Charlie “East Side Charlie” Struthers in The A-Team episode “The Out-of-Towners”. In 1987, he appeared in the futuristic sci-fi movie The Running Man, and in 1988, in the action-comedy Midnight Run, in which he portrayed Alonzo Moseley, an FBI agent. A memo from Paramount indicates that Kotto was among those being considered for Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role which eventually went to Patrick Stewart.^[14]

Kotto was cast as a religious man living in the southwestern desert country in the 1967 episode “A Man Called Abraham” on the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days, hosted by Robert Taylor. In the story line, Abraham convinces a killer named Cassidy (Rayford Barnes) that Cassidy can change his heart despite past crimes. When Cassidy is sent to the gallows, Abraham provides spiritual solace. Bing Russell also appeared in this segment.^[15]

Kotto retired from film acting in the mid-1990s, though he had one final film role in Witless Protection (2008).^[16] However, he continued to take on television roles. Kotto portrayed Lieutenant Al Giardello in the long-running television series Homicide: Life on the Street. As a black Sicilian proud of his Italian ancestry, the character was a breakout for television.^{[citation needed]} He has written the book Royalty and also wrote scripts for Homicide. In 2014, he voiced Parker for the video game Alien: Isolation, reprising the role he played in the movie Alien in 1979.^[17]

Personal life and death[edit]

Kotto’s first marriage was to a German immigrant, Rita Ingrid Dittman, whom he married in 1959. They had three children together before divorcing in 1976. Later, Kotto married Toni Pettyjohn, and they also had three children together, before divorcing in 1989. Kotto married his third wife, Tessie Sinahon, who is from the Philippines,^[5] in 1998.^[16]

Kotto was versed in the Hebrew liturgy and incorporated Jewish prayers at turning points throughout his life.^[18] He said his father “instilled Judaism” in him.^[16]

Kotto supported Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. He also expressed support for Black Lives Matter and QAnon.^[19]

In 2000, he was living in Marmora, Ontario, Canada.^[20]

He died at the age of 81 on March 15, 2021, near Manila, Philippines. His wife announced the news on Facebook.^[21]

Filmography[edit]

Films[edit]

Edward James Olmos

Edward James Olmos (born February 13, 1947) is an American actor, producer and director. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Martin “Marty” Castillo in Miami Vice (1984–1989), American Me (1992) (which he also directed), William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009), teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver (1988) (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), Detective Gaff in Blade Runner (1982) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and the voice of Mito in the 2005 English dub of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. In 2018 through 2023, he has played the father of two members of an outlaw motorcycle club in the FX series Mayans M.C.

For his work in Miami Vice, Olmos won the 1985 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. For his performance in Stand and Deliver, Olmos was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

He is also known for his roles as folk hero Gregorio Cortez in The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, patriarch Abraham Quintanilla in the film Selena, narrator El Pachuco in both the stage and film versions of Zoot Suit, and the voice of Chicharrón in Coco.

Over the course of his career, Olmos has been a pioneer for more diversified roles and images of Latinos in U.S. media.^[2][3][4] His notable direction, production, and starring roles for films, made-for-TV movies, and TV shows include Wolfen, Triumph of the Spirit, Talent for the Game, American Me, The Burning Season, My Family/Mi Familia, Caught, 12 Angry Men, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, Walkout, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, American Family, and Dexter.

Early life[edit]

Olmos was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California, the son of Eleanor (née Huizar) and Pedro Olmos, who was a welder and mail carrier.^[5] His father was a Mexican immigrant who moved to California in 1945 and his mother was an American of Mexican descent.^[1][6] His parents divorced when he was seven years old, and he was primarily raised by his great-grandparents as his parents worked.^[1] He grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player, and at age 13 joined the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ farm system, as a catcher. He left baseball at age 15 to join a rock and roll band, which caused a rift with his father, who was hurt by the decision.^[1][7]

He graduated from Montebello High School in 1964. While at Montebello High School, he lost a race for Student Body President to future California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres. In his teen years, he was the lead singer for a band he named Pacific Ocean, so called because it was to be “the biggest thing on the West Coast”.^[8] For several years, Pacific Ocean performed at various clubs in and around Los Angeles, and released their only record, Purgatory, in 1968. At the same time, he attended classes at East Los Angeles College, including courses in acting.^[9]

Career[edit]

Theater[edit]

In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Olmos branched out from music into acting, appearing in many small productions, until his big break portraying the narrator, called “El Pachuco”, in the play Zoot Suit, which dramatized the World War II-era rioting in California brought about by the tensions between Mexican-Americans and local police, called the Zoot Suit riots. The play moved to Broadway, and Olmos earned a Tony Award nomination. He subsequently took the role to the filmed version in 1981, and appeared in many other films including Wolfen, Blade Runner and The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez.

Film and television[edit]

In 1980, Olmos was cast in the post-apocalyptic science fiction film Virus (復活の日 Fukkatsu no Hi), directed by Kinji Fukasaku and based on a novel written by Sakyo Komatsu. His role required him to play a piano while singing a Spanish ballad during the later part of the film. Although not a box office success, Virus was notable for being the most expensive Japanese film made at the time.

From 1984 to 1989, he starred in his biggest role up to that date as the taciturn police Lieutenant Martin Castillo in the television series Miami Vice, opposite Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, for which he was awarded a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 1985. At this time, Olmos also starred in a short training video for the United States Postal Service entitled Was it Worth It?, a video about theft in the workplace. He was contacted about playing the captain of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) on Star Trek: The Next Generation when it was in pre-production in 1986, but declined.^[10]

Returning to film, Olmos became the first American-born Hispanic to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor,^[11] in Stand and Deliver, for his portrayal of real-life math teacher Jaime Escalante. He directed and starred in the controversial crime film American Me in 1992, and also starred in My Family/Mi Familia, a multi-generational story of a Chicano family. He had a slight appearance in the video of the American rock band Toto, “I Will Remember” (1995), where he can be seen with actor Miguel Ferrer. In 1997, he starred alongside Jennifer Lopez in the film Selena. Olmos played Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo in the 2001 film In the Time of the Butterflies. He had a recurring role as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roberto Mendoza in the NBC drama The West Wing. From 2002 to 2004, he starred as a recently widowed father of a Hispanic family in the PBS drama American Family: Journey of Dreams.

From 2003 to 2009, he starred as Commander William Adama in the Sci-Fi Channel‘s reimagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries, and in the television series that followed. He directed four episodes of the show, “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down” (1.9), “Taking a Break from All Your Worries” (3.13), “Escape Velocity” (4.4), and “Islanded in a Stream of Stars” (4.18). He directed a television film based upon the show, The Plan. Regarding his work on the show, he told CraveOnline, “I’m very grateful for the work that I’ve been able to do in my life, but I can honestly tell you, this is the best usage of television I’ve ever been a part of to date.”^[12]

In 2006, he co-produced, directed, and played the bit part of Julian Nava in the HBO film about the 1968 Chicano Blowouts, Walkout.^[13] He appeared in Snoop Dogg‘s music video “Vato“. In the series finale of the ABC sitcom George Lopez, titled “George Decides to Sta-Local Where It’s Familia”; he guest-starred as the plant’s new multi-millionaire owner. He has been a spokesperson for Farmers Insurance Group, starring in their Spanish language commercials.

Olmos joined the cast of the television series Dexter for its sixth season, as a “brilliant, charismatic professor of religious studies”.^[14]

Olmos starred in the second season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Robert Gonzales, the leader of a rival faction of S.H.I.E.L.D., for five episodes.

Music[edit]

In 1967, Olmos – as Eddie James (vocals, keyboards) – formed the bluesy psyche rock band that would become Pacific Ocean ^[15], who the following year released their selftitled, only LP.

In 1972 he contributed backing vocals to the final song on Todd Rundgren‘s Something/Anything? album.^[16]

Social and political activism[edit]

Olmos has often been involved in social activism, especially that affecting the U.S. Hispanic community. During the 1992 Los Angeles riot in Los Angeles, Olmos went out with a broom^[17] and worked to get communities cleaned up and rebuilt.^[18][19][20] He also attended an The Oprah Winfrey Show episode relating to the L.A. riots as an audience member. In 1997, he co-founded the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival^[21] with Marlene Dermer, George Hernandez and Kirk Whisler. That same year, he co-founded with Kirk Whisler the non-profit organization, Latino Literacy Now, that has produced Latino Book & Festivals^[22] around the US, attended by over 700,000 people.

In 1998, he founded Latino Public Broadcasting and serves as its chairman. Latino Public Broadcasting funds public television programming that focuses on issues affecting Hispanics and advocates for diverse perspectives in public television. That same year, he starred in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. In 1999, Olmos was one of the driving forces that created Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S., a book project featuring over 30 award-winning photographers, later turned into a Smithsonian traveling exhibition, music CD and HBO special.

He also makes frequent appearances at juvenile halls and detention centers to speak to at-risk teenagers. He has also been an international ambassador for UNICEF. In 2001, he was arrested and spent 20 days in jail for taking part in the Navy-Vieques protests against United States Navy target practice bombings of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. On January 5, 2007, he blamed the United States government for not cleaning Vieques after the U.S. Navy stopped using the island for bombing practice.^[23]

Olmos narrated the 1999 documentary film Zapatista, in support of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, a revolutionary group that has abstained from using weapons since 1994. He gave $2,300 to New Mexico governor Bill Richardson for his presidential campaign (the maximum amount for the primaries).^[24] In 2020, he supported Joe Biden for President.^[25]

He is a supporter of SENS Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to treating and curing diseases of aging by repairing the underlying damage caused by aging. A series of animations explaining the concept of SENS has been narrated by him.^[26]

Personal life[edit]

From 1979 to 1987, Olmos lived in West New York, New Jersey.^[27] In 1971, he married Kaija Keel, the daughter of actor Howard Keel. They had two children, Bodie and Mico, before divorcing in 1992. Olmos has four adopted children: Daniela, Michael, Brandon, and Tamiko. He married actress Lorraine Bracco in 1994. She filed for divorce in January 2002 after five years of separation.^[8] Olmos had a long-term relationship with actress Lymari Nadal. They married in 2002,^[28] and separated in 2013.^[29]

In 1993, Olmos was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) degree from Whittier College.^[30]

In 1996, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from California State University, Fresno. In 2007, after a seven-year process, he obtained Mexican nationality.^[31] Asteroid 5608 Olmos is named in his honor.

In 2022, Olmos was diagnosed with throat cancer and immediately went into chemotherapy for treatment. By the end of the year, the cancer went into remission. This was not made public until May 2023.^[32]

Sexual assault accusations[edit]

In 1992, a teenage girl accused Olmos of twice touching her in a sexual manner while they watched TV and flirted together.^[33] Olmos paid the family a cash settlement of $150,000 in response to the allegations, but denied that they were true. He claimed that the settlement was in fact meant to protect his son, Bodie Olmos, not him.^[34]

In 1997, a woman accused Olmos of sexually assaulting her in a South Carolina hotel room.^[35][36]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]