Four-time Tony nominee Raul Julia was born Mar. 9, 1940, in San Juan, P.R. He first appeared on stage in a first grade play at Colegio Espíritu Santo and continued acting through high school at Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola. He spent a year at Fordham University, before returning to Puerto Rico after his younger brother’s death, finishing his degree at University of Puerto Rico. After graduation, Julia appeared in Bye Bye Birdie and The Happy Time at Teatro Tapia, while also singing at Hotel El Convento, where actor Orson Bean saw him and advised him to move to New York. Below is the trailer for the 2019 PBS American Masters episode on Julia.
Julia followed Bean’s advice and made his Off-Broadway debut in a bilingual production of Calderon’s play Life Is a Dream (1964), before catching the eye of producer Joe Papp, who cast Julia in Titus Andronicus (1967). A year later, Julia made his Broadway debut in the play The Cuban Thing and his Off-Broadway musical debut in Your Own Thing. His subsequent Off-Broadway musicals included City Scene (1969) and Papp’s Public Theater production of Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971), which transferred to Broadway and earned Julia his first Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award. Below is Julia and Clifton Davis singing “I’d Like to Be a Rose.”
Julia returned to Broadway in the musical Via Galactica (1972), which closed on opening night. He had better luck with starring roles in Broadway revivals of Where’s Charley? (1974) and Threepenny Opera (1976), both of which earned him additional Tony and Drama Desk award nominations. His next Broadway musical was Nine (1982), which brought him his fourth Tony nomination. Below is Julia singing “Guido’s Song.”
Over the next decade, Julia appeared in increasingly higher profile films, including the musical features One from the Heart (1982), Tango Bar (1987), and Mack the Knife (1989). He also earned Golden Globe nominations for his work in the nonmusical films Tempest (1982), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), and Moon over Parador (1988) and starred in a series of Shakespearean plays in New York, including the Public Theater’s Tempest (1981), Macbeth (1989), and Othello (1991). Below is Julia singing “It’s Raining Cuban Cigars” to Tari Garr in One from the Heart and singing “The Cannon Song” with the ensemble of Mack the Knife.
During the 1990s, Julia rose to international fame in The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel, Addams Family Values (1993). His final Broadway role was Don Quixote in the 1992 revival of Man of La Mancha. He died Oct. 24, 1994, at his home in Manhasset, N.Y. He won posthumous Golden Globe and Emmy awards for the TV series The Burning Season (1994). Below is Julia performing “Mamushka” with Christopher Lloyd in The Addams Family and the press reel of clips from Man of La Mancha, featuring Julia and Sheena Easton.