Milian, big-screen standout for four decades, dies at 84

LOS ANGELES — Versatile Cuban-American-Italian actor Tomas Milian, known for the intensity he brought to disparate roles, died Thursday. He was 84.

Milian died of a stroke in his Miami home, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

A Method actor who studied with Lee Strasberg, Milian played in about 120 movies during a career spanning six decades.

Later in his career, Milian moved to the U.S. where, among other films, he appeared in Sydney Pollack’s “Havana,” in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad,” and played corrupt General Arturo Salazar in Soderbergh’s “Traffic,” a role for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award, with the rest of the ensemble cast.

Born Tomas Quintin Rodriguez on March 3, 1933, in Havana, Milian was the son of a Cuban general who during the revolution was arrested and jailed, which prompted Milian to emigrate to New York, where he studied at the Actors Studio and became a U.S. citizen.

He appeared in “Identification of a Woman” in 1982.

After moving back to New York in the mid-’80s, Milian had an active career as a supporting actor, including in Abel Ferrara’s erotic thriller “Cat Chaser” (1989), Oliver Stone’s “JFK” (1991), and the 1992 CBS sitcom “Frannie’s Turn,” which bombed. His more recent roles include a prelate in “The Lost City” (2005), set during revolutionary Cuba, directed by Andy Garcia.

In 2014, Milian was given a lifetime achievement award by the Rome Film Festival.

He is survived by a son, actor Tomaso Milian, Jr.

DOMENICO STINELLIS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Actor Tomas Milian attends the 2014 Rome Film Festival. Milian died Wednesday in Miami at 84.