Tomas Milian

His father was an army general under a Cuban dictatorship. In 1933 the dictatorship was overthrown and his father arrested. He committed suicide in 1945 in his home, with Tomas as an eyewitness.

He decided to become a movie actor after seeing James Dean in East of Eden (1955).

After the tremendous success of Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964) starring Clint Eastwood, Milian grubbed up his own image and propelled himself to stardom in like fashion in such classic "spaghetti westerns" as The Ugly Ones (1966), La resa dei conti (1966) with Lee Van Cleef, Faccia a faccia (1967), Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1967) and Corri uomo corri (1968).

Tomas Milian, an American actor born in Cuba; was trained at the Actors Studio. He appeared in a few plays on Broadway, as well as in a show by Jean Cocteau in Spoleto. Mauro Bolognini noticed him and that was the starting point of a rich cinematographic career in Italy, where he played in all manner of genres. He interpreted a mad psychopath in The Ugly Ones (1966) (aka "Bounty Killer"), a role he would then improve and diversify into an impressive gallery of neurotic and sadistic killers, first in "spaghetti westerns" (many directed by Sergio Corbucci), and then in violent action and police thrillers (many directed by Umberto Lenzi).

In the 1970s he specialized in playing lone-wolf anti-heroes in giallos and crime features. He started an extremely successful series of tough, violent films as the small-time crook Er. Monnezza (three times) and police detective Nico Giraldi (12 times).