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TCM Website
For release: July 17, 1999
TCM Kicks Off Two-Night Salute to Hollywood Heavyweight
With World Premiere of Private Screenings: Anthony Quinn
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Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will kick off a two-night salute to one of the big screen's most legendary international stars with the world premiere of Private Screenings: Anthony Quinn on August 2 at 8 p.m. This latest addition to TCM's popular Private Screenings series celebrates the lust for life of one of the big screen's most vivid personalities. The two-night film festival features seven of his greatest films August 2 and 3, starting at 8 p.m. each night, and includes such classics as REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (1962) and LA STRADA (1954). The actor, often hailed as a "one-man United Nations" because of the many nationalities he has played in his 60-plus-year career, reveals his dreams and regrets, his favorite co-stars and directors and the secrets behind some of his greatest films. Encores of Private Screenings: Anthony Quinn will air on August 2 at 11 p.m. and August 7 at 7 p.m.
In Private Screenings: Anthony Quinn, the star recalls his working relationships with such great filmmakers as Cecil B. De Mille, who not only directed him but was his father-in-law; director William Wellman; sex symbol Rita Hayworth; Gary Cooper; Federico Fellini; and Kirk Douglas. He hails Marlon Brando as his favorite actor, and also shares that Douglas's performance as Vincent Van Gogh in LUST FOR LIFE was one of the greatest he ever witnessed. In addition, he discusses the simple life he currently lives, painting and raising the two young children he shares with his wife. But he still plays an active role in filmmaking and is currently trying to secure backing for his dream project, a film biography of author Leo Tolstoy.
After a childhood spent traveling around the U.S. and his native Mexico, the Mexican-Irish actor pursued his first great dream, architecture, as a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, who encouraged him to deal with a speech problem by taking acting classes. When those classes led to a contract at Universal Studios, Quinn changed careers. He made his film debut as a gangster in Parole! in 1936, and for a decade was typed in villainous roles as gangsters, pirates and Native Americans. Fearing he would never surmount typecasting, Quinn left Hollywood in the late '40s to study at the Actor's Studio in New York, then spent two years as Stanley Kowalski in the original touring company of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire.
That success (some critics thought he played the role better than Brando) led to better film roles, including Brando's brother in Viva Zapata!, (1952) which brought him his first Academy AwardÆ for Best Supporting Actor. He won a second OscarÆ as artist Paul Gauguin in LUST FOR LIFE (1956, August 2, 12 a.m.), then created an international sensation as the traveling strong man in director Federico Fellini's LA STRADA (August 3, 8 p.m.). Quinn secured his hold on stardom with roles like the retiring prize fighter in REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (August 2, 9 p.m.), then shot to superstardom as the life-loving Zorba the Greek (1964).
Each edition of Private Screenings features TCM host and noted columnist Robert Osborne in a one-on-one conversation with a great star from Hollywood's golden days. Past one-hour specials have showcased Esther Williams, Charlton Heston, Tony Curtis, Leslie Caron and, in tandem, friends and co-stars Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell.
Turner Classic Movies, currently seen in more than 32 million homes, is a 24-hour cable network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. that presents the greatest motion pictures of all time from the largest film library in the world, the combined Time Warner and Turner film libraries, from the '20s through the '80s, commercial-free and without interruption. For more information, please visit the TCM website at (http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com).
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