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| Birth Name(s) : Edward James Olmos |
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Full Edward James Olmos Biography
Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated American actor and director. Some of his most memorable roles were Lt. Martin Castillo in Miami Vice, Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver and Admiral William Adama in the Battlestar Galactica re-imagined series.
Olmos was born in East Los Angeles, California to a Southern Baptist Mexican father with 1/4 Hungarian Jewish ancestry (the family name was originally Olmosh) and a Mexican American Catholic mother. He grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player and became the Golden State batting champion. In his teen years, he turned to rock and roll, and became the lead singer for a band he named Pacific Ocean, so-called because it was "the biggest thing on the West Coast". He graduated from Montebello High School in 1964. While at Montebello High School, he lost a race for Student Body President to future California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres. For several years Pacific Ocean played various clubs in and around Los Angeles and released a record in 1968. At the same time, he attended classes at East Los Angeles College and California State University, Los Angeles, including courses in acting.
In 1984, Olmos starred in his biggest role up to that date as the authoritative police Lieutenant Martin Castillo in the television series Miami Vice alongside Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, for which he was awarded a Golden Globe and an Emmy. Returning to film, he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, portraying a real-life math teacher, Jaime Escalante, who turned his students into math whizzes, despite their disadvantaged backgrounds. He directed American Me in 1992, and starred in the multigenerational story of a Chicano family in My Family/Mi Familia. In 1997 he played alongside Jennifer Lopez in the film Selena.
He has often become involved in social issues, especially those affecting the Hispanic-American community in the United States. In 1998, he founded Latino Public Broadcasting and currently serves as its Chairman. The Latino Public Broadcasting funds programming for public television which focuses on issues affecting Hispanic-Americans and advocates for diverse perspectives in public television. That same year, he starred in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, a comedy that sought to break Latino stereotypes and transcend the normal stigmas of most Latino oriented movies.He also makes frequent appearances at juvenile halls and detention centers to speak to teenagers at risk. He has also been an international ambassador for UNICEF. In 2001, he was arrested and spent 20 days in prison for taking part in the Navy-Vieques protests against United States Navy target practice bombings of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.
He played Rafael Leónidas Trujillo in the 2001 movie In the Time of the Butterflies. He also appeared as a recurring character Justice Mendoza in the NBC drama The West Wing.
He later starred as the recently widowed father in a Latin L.A.-family, in the PBS drama American Family: Journey of Dreams.
In 2006, he produced and played the bit part of Julian Nava in the HBO movie Walkout about the 1968 Chicano Blowouts.
On January 5, 2007, he appeared on Puerto Rican Television to blame the Puerto Rican and United States Governments for not cleaning the Island of Vieques after the United States Navy stopped using the island for bombing practice. He has also given $2300 to New Mexico governor Bill Richardson for his Presidential campaign (the maximum amount for the primaries).
In 1971, Olmos married Kaija Keel, the daughter of actor Howard Keel. They had two children, Bodie and Mico, before divorcing in 1992. Olmos married actress Lorraine Bracco in 1994, but she filed for divorce in January 2002 after five years of separation. He is currently married to Puerto Rican actress Lymari Nadal, 31 years his junior, and also has three adopted children: Michael D., Brandon, and Tamiko. |
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