Francesco Quinn

Francesco Quinn
Francesco Daniele Quinn as Marcus Vinicius in the 1985 miniseries "Quo Vadis?"
Born	Francesco Daniele Quinn (1963-03-22)March 22, 1963 Rome, Italy
Died	August 5, 2011(2011-08-05) (aged 48) Malibu, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–2011
Spouse	Julie Quinn (Divorced 2008)
Children	2
Father	Anthony Quinn

Francesco Daniele Quinn (March 22, 1963 – August 5, 2011) was an Italian-born American actor. The first son of Oscar-winner Anthony Quinn and costume designer Iolanda Addolori (Anthony Quinn's second wife), Francesco is perhaps best known for his breakout role as Rhah in Oliver Stone’s Academy Award-winning Platoon (1986). However, his first major role in television was in the 1985 prime-time television miniseries Quo Vadis?. His final role was the voice of the Autobot Dino (Mirage) in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Early years

Francesco Quinn was born in Rome, Italy, the son of Anthony Quinn and second wife Iolanda Addolori, a noted costume designer to whom Anthony Quinn was married for 31 years. Quinn had Mexican, Irish, and Italian ancestry.

Career

Film

Quinn appeared in many feature films including the New York Independent Film Festival winner Placebo Effect. He acted with his father in several films, including A Star For Two with Lauren Bacall. The two Quinns also had the opportunity to share the role of Santiago in the 1990 mini-series The Old Man and the Sea, son and father playing the character as a young and old man.

Quinn sometimes played moody, dangerous characters, such as vampire Vlad Tepes in the 2003 direct to video alt-historical thriller Vlad, and wandering warrior Thane Le Mal in the short film The Gnostic. Like his father, Quinn also appeared in historical dramas, playing such roles as Latino Captain Salamanca in Steven Spielberg’s mini-series Into the West (2005) and a lead role in TNT's Rough Riders (1997) (TV). One of Quinn's earliest roles was as Marcus Vinicius in the 1985 mini-series Quo Vadis?, co-starring with some major film actors of the 1980s.

Later examples of Quinn's work included Park, which won the audience award at 2007 CineVegas, and the short film Muertas, starring America Ferrera. In 2007, he appeared as Ruben Vega in the Academy Award-nominated short film The Tonto Woman, adapted from the Elmore Leonard short story.

Television

From 1999 to 2001, Francesco appeared on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless as Nina Webster's boyfriend, Tomas del Cerro, and was nominated for an ALMA Award (an award reserved for Latino/a performers) as Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Soap Opera for his work as Tomas Del Cerro, an aloof writer from New York.

Quinn also appeared extensively in television guest-star roles in crime and thriller dramas. He was lead guest star in an episode of JAG (1995). On CBS's The Fugitive, Quinn played Victor Gutierrez, a DEA agent with an edge, and played the recurring role of Islamic terrorist Syed Ali on Fox's series 24. Other TV guest starring roles occurred in Criminal Minds, ER, CSI: Miami, The Glades, Navy NCIS, Alias, Crossing Jordan, In the Heat of the Night, Miami Vice, Red Shoe Diaries, The Handler, Soldier of Fortune, Good vs. Evil, Vengeance Unlimited, and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. Quinn also portrayed the final criminal/villain, Guillermo Beltran, in the long-running F/X series, The Shield. In 2008, Quinn joined Luke Perry and C. Thomas Howell in the western film A Gunfighter's Pledge.

Quinn was one of the earlier working actors to branch out into contributing to video games with his role as a main character in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999). In 2010–2011, he took part in the second season of the Italian TV series Il commissario Manara.

Personal life

Francesco married Julie McCann and had two children; Massimiliano and Michela Quinn. The marriage ended in divorce in 2008. Before his death he was dating Valentina Castellani.

Quinn has two siblings: Danny Quinn, Lorenzo Quinn. Quinn has eight other surviving half siblings: Alex, Antonia, Catalina, Christina, Danny, Duncan, Ryan, Sean, and Valentina Quinn. His eldest sibling, Christopher, drowned in 1941, aged two.

Athletic pursuits

Quinn pursued sports such as skiing, snowboarding, windsurfing, free diving, road cycling, mountain biking, and actively raced motocross and street bikes. Quinn also was an avid motorcycler, and was a spokesman for The Motorcycle Industry Council and Honda. He was fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian.

Quinn was a contestant on Ty Murray’s Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge on CMT, until he was sidelined with a broken rib after being stomped on by a Level 2 bull.

Death

Quinn died on August 5, 2011, in Malibu, California after experiencing what was believed to be a heart attack while running up a street with his children near his home.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Platoon	"Rhah" Ramucci
1988	Priceless Beauty	Peter
1988	Stradivari	Alessandro
1989	The Favorite	Mahmud II
1989	Indio	Daniel Morell
1989	Casablanca Express	Capt. Franchetti
1991	A Star for Two	Young Gabriel Todd
1991	Murder Blues	John Reed
1992	Judgement	Jimmy Sollera	1992 In the heat of the night ‘’Sanctuary’’ Ramon Salazar
1993	Deadly Rivals	Bunny Wedman
1994	The Visual Bible: Acts	Stephen	Video
1995	Top Dog	Mark Curtains
1995	The Dark Dancer	Ramone
1997	Cannes Man	Frank 'Rhino' Rhinoslavsky
1998	Nowhere Land	Walfredo
1998	Deadly Ransom	Luis Mendes
1998	Placebo Effect	Zac
2000	The Translator	Jean-Paul Esselen	Short
2001	Reflections	Him
2003	Vlad	Vlad Tepes
2006	Park	Smoldering Park Worker
2006	Man vs. Monday	Juan Carlos	Short
2006	Cut Off	Agent Jones
2007	The Warrior	Warrior	Short
2007	Muertas	Carlos	Short
2007	Afghan Knights	Amad
2008	Hell Ride	Machete
2008	The Tonto Woman	Ruben Vega	Short
2008	Broken Promise	Santos
2009	Four Single Fathers	Dom
2010	Rollers	Quinn
2010	Corruption.Gov	Ron Garcia
2011	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	Dino / Mirage	Voice (last film role)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Quo Vadis?	Marcus Vinicius	TV miniseries
1987	Miami Vice	Francesco Cruz	Episode: "God's Work"
1990	The Old Man and the Sea	Santiago as a Young Man	TV miniseries
1992	Red Shoe Diaries	Tommy	Episode: "Double or Nothing"
1992	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles	Francois	Episode: "Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal"
1992	In the Heat of the Night	Ramon Salazar	Episode: "Sanctuary"
1996	O. Henry's Christmas	Robby Gilliam	TV film
1997	Rough Riders	Sgt. Rafael Castillo	TV miniseries
1997	Soldier of Fortune, Inc.	Ramon Boharo	Episode: "La Mano Negra"
1997	JAG	Mustapha Ben Kessar	Episode: "Code Blue"
1998	Pensacola: Wings of Gold	Javier Nuñez	Episode: "Lost Shipment"
1998	Vengeance Unlimited	Col. Oscar Ponce	Episode: "Security"
1999–2001	The Young and the Restless	Tomas Del Cerro	Regular role
2000	G vs E	Agent Shaw	Episode: "Ambulance Chaser"
2001	The Fugitive	Victor	Episode: "Past Perfect"
2002	Alias	Minos Sakkoulas	Episode: "The Confession"
2002	JAG	Kabir Atef	Recurring role
2002	Almost a Woman	Don Carlos	TV film
2003	24	Syed Ali	Recurring role
2003	The Handler	Det. Lopez	Episode: "Hardcore"
2004	CSI: Miami	Fidel	Episode: "Murder in a Flash"
2004	NCIS	Gunnery Sgt. Freddy Alvarez	Episode: "One Shot, One Kill"
2004	ER	Dr. Alfonso Ramirez	Episode: "Time of Death"
2005	Into the West	Capitan de Salamanca	Episode: "Wheel to the Stars"
2005	Criminal Minds	Michael Russo	Episode: "Natural Born Killer"
2006	NCIS	Cpl. Luis Romero	Episode: "Once a Hero"
2007	Tinseltown	Arturo	TV film
2008	A Gunfighter's Pledge	Sheriff	TV film
2008	The Shield	Beltran	Recurring role
2008	Danny Fricke	Pablo Vicente	TV film
2010–11	The Glades	Eduardo Garcia	Episodes: "Bird in the Hand", "Family Matters"
2011	Zen	Gilberto Nieddu	Episodes: "Vendetta", "Cabal", "Ratking"
2011	Il commissario Manara	Fabrizio Raimondi	TV series
2011	Natalee Holloway	Ricardo Flores	TV film (final TV appearance)

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun	General Vega

External links

• Francesco Quinn at IMDb
• QuickTime-viewable copy of Francesco Quinn as The Gnostic
• L.A. Times article "Quinn Begins Again" on Oscar-nominated The Tonto Woman