Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rudolfo Oaxaca Quinn on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico to an Irish father and a Mexican mother.
Quinn’s family lived an extremely modest life in Mexico, until finally move to Los Angeles where his father found work as a cameraman and prop man. Quinn grew up in Boyle Heights and the Echo Park neighborhood and attended Polytechnic High School and later Belmont High School, but he soon had to find work to help support his family and dropped school without graduating.
Quinn worked in a series of small jobs like in a mattress factory, playing saxophone in evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson's orchestra and as a boxer before starting work and studying with famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who encouraged him to enroll in an acting school.
After a brief career on stage in "Clean Beds" (1936), Quinn made his film debut in "Parole" in the same year. In the following year, Quinn was cast as a Cheyenne Indian in "The Plainsman" (1937) directed by Cecil B DeMille. Quinn impressed the famous director when, after an abusive director’s outburst, Quinn told DeMille how to shot the scene and where he should stuff his salary of $75 a day. DeMille agreed with Quinn, immediately ordering the crew to change the set-up. DeMille later cast Quinn for two more films, "The Buccaneer" (1938), "Union Pacific" (1939). Quinn also met and married DeMille’s adopted daughter, Katherine.
Quinn then geared a series of road movies and supporting roles during the 1940s, "Road to Singapore" (1940), "Blood and Sand" (1941), "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943), "Road to Morocco" 1944) and "Back to Bataan" (1945), before going back to the stages, making his Broadway debut in "The Gentleman from Athens" (1947). After a U.S. tour with the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1948-49) directed by Elia Kazan, Quinn went back to the screen in "Viva Zapata" (1952), receiving his first Academy Award for “Best Supporting Actor.”
In 1954, Quinn went to Italy to perform under Federico Fellini’s guidance in "La Strada" (1954) and in "Attila" (1954). Back in the United States, he played Paul Gauguin in Vincente Minnelli's "Lust for Life" (1955), receiving his second Academy Award for “Best Supporting Actor.” In 1957, he earned his first Academy Award nomination as “Best Actor” for George Cukor's “Wild Is the Wind" and played the role once performed by Lon Chaney and Charles Laughton, Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1956).
Quinn entered the 1960s going back to the boxing rings in "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1962), followed by David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" (also 1962). A year before he starred as a Greek in the classic war movie "The Guns of Navarone" (1961) and performed another Greek character in he title role of "Zorba the Greek" (1964), receiving another Academy Award nomination as “Best Actor.”
In the 1970s, Quinn began to perform on television, starring in the series "The Man and the City" (ABC, 1971-72). His following appearances became sporadic until the 1990s. In 1977, he starred the title role of “Mohammad, Messenger of God,” about the origins of Islam.
Quinn reprised his role as Zorba, this time on the stages in a 1983 revival of the Broadway musical “Zorba!” touring the United States from 1983-86 and receiving a Tony Award nomination. He also performed on television again in "The Richest Man in the World: The Aristotle Onassis Story" (ABC, 1988), for which he received an Emmy nomination.
Quinn’s roles were shorting with his advanced age, but he starred in a series of cameo appearances in “Jungle Fever” (1991), “Last Action Hero” (1993), and “A Walk in the Clouds” (1995). One of his last famous roles was as Zeus in the "Legends of Hercules" action-adventure movies and series in 1994.
Quinn spent his last years in Rhode Island and died in Boston at the age of 86 on June 3, 2001, from pneumonia and respiratory failure while suffering from terminal throat cancer, shortly after completing his role in the film “Avenging Angelo” (2002).
Quinn was married three times, first to the actress Katherine DeMille (Cecil B. DeMille's adopted daughter) in 1937, with whom he had three children. They divorced in 1965.
He remarried to the costume designer Iolanda Quinn (Jolanda Addolori) in 1966. The union ended in 1993 when Quinn impregnated his secretary.
His last marriage was to his secretary, Kathy Benvin, with whom he remained until his death. The two had a second child in 1996. As Zeus, Quinn was notorious for having several mistresses and had a total of 13 children.
