Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay

 Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994)

After performing locally for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson Bean to move and work in New York City. Juliá, who had been bilingual since his childhood, soon gained interest in Broadway and Off-Broadway plays. He performed in mobile projects, including The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Juliá was eventually noticed by Joseph Papp, who offered him work in the New York Shakespeare Festival. After gaining visibility, he received roles in two television series, Love of Life and Sesame Street. For his performance in Two Gentlemen of Verona, he received a nomination for the Tony Award and won a Drama Desk Award. Between 1974 and 1982, Juliá received Tony Award nominations for Where's Charley?, The Threepenny Opera and Nine. During the 1980's, he worked in several films, receiving nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, for his performance in Tempest, and Kiss of the Spider Woman, winning the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for the latter. In 1988, Juliá played a corrupt official in Moon over Parador, which received negative reviews from critics. The following year, he co-starred with Anthony Quinn in Onassis: The Richest Man in the World, a biographic film covering the life of Aristotle Onassis. In 1990, he was cast to play a lawyer in Presumed Innocent, receiving solid reviews for his performance.

In addition, Juliá portrayed Gomez Addams in two film adaptations of The Addams Family. Juliá suffered from stomach problems in 1994, and had recently undergone surgery, supposedly for stomach cancer. On October 16, 1994, Juliá and Poloway attended the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. After the opera, he was supposed to meet Marcos Zurinaga, a Puerto Rican filmmaker who directed Juliá in the Argentine/Puerto Rican coproduction Tango Bar. Juliá began feeling intense abdominal pain and had to be taken by ambulance to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Long Island. He was initially not worried by the issue, reviewing the script for his intended role in Desperado from his hospital bed, but his condition worsened. Later that night, Juliá suffered an unexpected stroke. He fell into a coma on October 20, 1994 and was put on life support, and died four days later. Raúl Juliá is buried at Buxeda Memorial Park in Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR.