Tomás Quintín Rodríguez

Tomás Milián is an American actor of Cuban origin. He is famous for having participated in several spaghetti westerns. An example is his character of the outlaw "Cuchillo" in the trilogy directed by Italian Sergio Sollima.

His Cuban family had Spanish ancestry, specifically Canarian.

His father was a military man named Tomás Rodríguez, a general in the service of Gerardo Machado and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada.

After the "Revolt of the Generals" in 1933, led by Fulgencio Batista, Milian's father was arrested for a time.

Years later, in 1945, he committed suicide with young Tomás as a witness.




Milian studied at the Salesians and began to take an interest in theater and cinema in his youth.

One of his most admired actors was James Dean.

In 1957 he arrived in the United States and attended the Florida Theater Academy.

Later, naturalized as an American citizen, he studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and began performing theater on Broadway while earning a living in various jobs, including dishwashing.

When he was in Italy participating in the Spoleto Theater Festival, Milian was discovered by director Mauro Bolognini, who had him make his film debut in "La Noche Brava" (1959), a film based on a novel by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

The 1960s solidified Tomas Milian in Italian cinema, mainly in spaghetti westerns, although he could also be seen…

Alongside Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale in "The Handsome Antonio" (1960)
Starring in "Day After Day Desperately" (1961) for Alfredo Giannetti
Playing a nobleman married to Romy Schneider in the episodic film "Boccaccio 70" (1962)
Being part of the cast of the crime drama "The Casaroli Gang" (1963)
Embodying painter Raphael in "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965), with Charlton Heston in the role of Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II.

Success came to Tomas Milian as Cuchillo, a Mexican bandit who pursues Lee Van Cleef in "The Hawk and the Prey" (1966), a western directed by Sergio Sollima that had a sequel, also directed by Sollima, called "Run, Cuchillo… Run!" (1968).

Although he was usually dubbed into Italian in films made with transalpine production, Tomas usually wrote his own dialogue.

Other Western-set titles filmed by Milian in the 1960s are "Cursed Gold" (1967), a film directed by Giulio Questi; or "Face to Face" (1967), in which he plays a criminal who kidnaps Gian Maria Volontè again with Sergio Sollima directing.

In 1964 he married Rita Valletti, with whom he had his son Tomaso Millian Jr.

In the late 1960s he became Commissioner Basevi in "Bandits in Milan" (1968), a thriller in which he again appeared with Volontè; he participated in the Mexican Revolution with "Tepepe… Viva La Revolución" (1969), a film by Giulio Petroni with Orson Welles as co-star; and he became another bandit, in this case Brazilian, in "O Caganceiro" (1969).

The 1970s continued with his successful work in Italy.

One of the most relevant titles from the beginning of the decade was "The Children of Day and Night" (1972), a western by Sergio Corbucci in which he again played an outlaw, in this case accompanied by Susan George and sought by Telly Savallas, the famous "Kojak".

A few years earlier, in 1970, he teamed up with Franco Nero and Jack Palance in "The Companions" (1970), a film set during the Mexican Revolution.

In 1972 he also premiered Lucio Fulci's giallo, "Silence of Anguish" (1972); and "They Already Called Him Providence" (1972), one of the many hybrids between comedy and western that Milian starred in Italy.

Its sequel was "The Brutal, The Smart and The Captain" (1973).

Another Western film in humorous tone with Milian in the cast is "The White, The Yellow and The Black" (1975), with Tomas playing the Japanese Sakura.

In 1975 he also premiered "The Police Accuse, The Secret Service Executes" (1975), a crime drama by Sergio Martino.

The police thriller genre was also common in his career, especially with the characterization of petty thief Monnezza, first appearing in "With the Law and With Crime" (1976) and continued in "Harry the Avenger" (1977), "The Mafia of Assassins" (1978) and "Two Cousins and a Destiny" (1981).

Another character that Tomas Milian played on numerous occasions was Inspector Nico Giraldi.

His first film as Giraldi was "All-Terrain Squad" (1976).

Subsequently he premiered:

"Anti-Theft Squad" (1976)
"Anti-Smuggling Squad" (1977)
"Nico With the Anti-Mafia Squad" (1978)
"Anti-Gangster Squad" (1979)
"The Murderer of the Tiber" (1979)
"Murder at Porta Romana" (1980)
"Crime at the Chinese Restaurant" (1981)
"Crime on the Highway" (1982)
"Crime in Formula 1" (1984)
"A Cop in Trouble" (1984).

All of Milian's films as Nico Giraldi were directed by Bruno Corbucci.

Aside from the aforementioned ones, other titles filmed by the Cuban-born actor in the 1970s are:

"The Four of the Apocalypse" (1975), a western by Lucio Fulci with Fabio Testi
"Madness of a Bourgeois Marriage" (1976), a film directed by Claude Chabrol
"Forty Degrees in the Shade of the White Sheet" (1976), an episodic film in which he shared lead roles with Edwige Fenech
"The Moon" (1979), a film about incest directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

In 1982 he played a film director for Michelangelo Antonioni in "Identification of a Woman" (1982).

The same year he accompanied Christopher Reeve in "Monsignor" (1982), an adaptation of a novel by Jack-Alain Léger directed by Frank Perry.

A year later he shared the lead with Bud Spencer in the comedy "Like Dog and Cat" (1983).

In the mid-1980s he re-established his regular residence in the United States.

To Cuban and American nationalities, Tomas added Italian.

In 1985 he participated uncredited in "King David" (1985), the biblical story starring Richard Gere.

In this period he could be seen in an episode of the television series "Miami Vice".

During the 1990s he was directed by…

Tony Scott in "Revenge" (1990), a thriller with Kevin Costner and Anthony Quinn
Sydney Pollack in "Havana" (1990), a film with Robert Redford
Oliver Stone in "JFK" (1991), again with Kevin Costner in the cast
Steven Spielberg in "Amistad" (1997), a story of 19th-century slavery.

In this decade he appeared in an episode of the television series "Murder, She Wrote".

Tomas Milian's extensive film career continued until almost the end of his days.

Some of his last relevant films were "Traffic" (2000), a drug trafficking story directed by Steven Soderbergh, or "The Feast of the Goat" (2005), an adaptation of a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa.

His last film was the comedy "Fugly!" (2015).

In 2012 he was widowed after the death of his wife Rita.

Tomas died in Miami on March 22, 2017 after suffering a stroke. He was 84 years old.