What Was Anthony Quinn’s Net Worth?
Anthony Quinn was a Mexican-American actor, painter, writer, director, and producer who had a net worth equal to $20 million at the time of his death in 2001, after adjusting for inflation. Quinn had more than 160 acting credits to his name and was best known for his roles in “La Strada” (1954), “The Guns of Navarone” (1961), “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), “Zorba the Greek” (1964), “Guns for San Sebastian” (1967), “The Message” (1976), “Lion of the Desert” (1981), “Viva Zapata!” (1952), and “Lust for Life” (1956).
Anthony won Academy Awards for “Viva Zapata!” and “Lust for Life,” making him the first Mexican-American to win an Oscar. He directed the 1947 TV movie “Pastoral” and the 1958 film “The Buccaneer,” and he produced “Zorba the Greek” and the films “The Visit” (1964), “Across 110th Street” (1972), and “Oriundi” (1999). Quinn also published the memoirs “The Original Sin” (1972) and “One Man Tango”(1995) and performed on Broadway in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947; 1950), “The Gentleman from Athens” (1947), “Borned in Texas” (1950), “Becket” (1960), “Tchin-Tchin” (1962) and “Zorba” (1983), earning a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play for “Becket.” In June 2001, Anthony died of respiratory failure in Boston, Massachusetts, at age 86.
Early Life
Anthony Quinn was born Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico. He grew up in El Paso, Texas, and Los Angeles, California, with mother Manuela and father Francisco, and he attended the L.A. schools Hammel Street Elementary School, Belvedere Junior High School, Polytechnic High School, and Belmont High School. Anthony dropped out of high school before earning his diploma, but Arizona’s Tucson High School later awarded him an honorary diploma. After leaving school, Quinn studied architecture and art with Frank Lloyd Wright in Arizona and Wisconsin.
Career
After acting in stage productions, Anthony made his film debut in 1936 when he appeared in “Parole!” and “The Plainsman.” By the end of the decade, he had appeared in 16 more films, including “Swing High, Swing Low” (1937), “Waikiki Wedding” (1937), “The Last Train from Madrid” (1937), “The Buccaneer” (1938), “King of Alcatraz” (1938), and “Island of Lost Men” (1939). Quinn co-starred with Rita Hayworth and Tyrone Power in 1941’s “Blood and Sand,” and he reunited with Power in 1942’s “The Black Swan.” He portrayed Crazy Horse in “They Died with Their Boots On” (1941), Juan Martinez in the Academy Award-nominated film “The Ox-Bow Incident” (1943), and Emir Maffi of Daibul in “Sinbad the Sailor” (1947), and by the late ’40s, he had appeared in over 50 movies. In the ’50s, Anthony starred in such films as “Mask of the Avenger” (1951), “Against All Flags” (1952), “City Beneath the Sea” (1953), “Ulysses” (1954), “Seven Cities of Gold” (1955), “Lust for Life” (1956), “Wild Is the Wind” (1957), and “Last Train from Gun Hill” (1959), and he played Eufemio Zapata in 1952’s “Viva Zapata!” and Quasimodo in 1956’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
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Quinn played Col. Andrea Stavrou in “The Guns of Navarone” (1961), Auda Abu Tayi in “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), and Alexis Zorba in “Zorba the Greek” (1964), and around this time, he appeared in the films “Portrait in Black” (1960), “Barabbas” (1961), “Requiem for a Heavyweight” (1962), “Behold a Pale Horse” (1964), “Marco the Magnificent” (1965), “The 25th Hour” (1967), and “Guns for San Sebastian” (1967). From 1971 to 1972, he starred as Thomas Jefferson Alcala on the ABC series “The Man and the City,” and he played Caiaphas in the 1977 miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth.” He appeared in more than a dozen films in the ’70s, including “The Don Is Dead” (1973), “The Con Artists” (1976), “The Message” (1976), “The Greek Tycoon” (1978), and “The Passage” (1979), followed by “Lion of the Desert” (1981), “The Salamander” (1981), “High Risk” (1981), “Crosscurrent” (1981), “Valentina” (1982), “Regina Roma” (1982), “Stradivari” (1989), and “A Man of Passion” (1989) in the ’80s.
Anthony played Long John Silver in the 1987 miniseries “Treasure Island in Space” and Socrates Onassis in the 1988 TV movie “Onassis: The Richest Man in the World,” then he appeared in the films ” Ghosts Can’t Do It” (1990), “Revenge” (1990), “Only the Lonely” (1991), “Mobsters” (1991), “Last Action Hero” (1993), “Somebody to Love” (1994), “A Walk in the Clouds” (1995), “Seven Servants” (1996), and “The Mayor” (1997). In the ’90s, he also starred in several TV movies, playing Santiago in “The Old Man and the Sea” (1990), Aniello ‘Neil’ Dellacroce in “Gotti” (1996), and Zeus in 1994’s “Hercules and the Amazon Women,” “Hercules and the Lost Kingdom,” “Hercules and the Circle of Fire,” “Hercules in the Underworld,” and “Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur.” In 1999, Quinn starred in the lead role in the film “Oriundi,” and his final film was 2002’s “Avenging Angelo,” which was released after his death.
Personal Life
Anthony married Cecil B. DeMille’s adopted daughter, Katherine, on October 3, 1937, and they had five children, Christopher (who drowned at the age of 2), Christina, Catalina, Duncan, and Valentina, before divorcing in 1965 due to Quinn’s affair with costume designer Jolanda Addolori. Anthony wed Jolanda on January 2, 1966, and they had three children together, Francesco, Danny, and Lorenzo. During the marriage, Quinn had two children, Sean and Alexander, with event producer Friedel Dunbar. After Anthony and Jolanda divorced in August 1997, he married his secretary, Katherine Benvin, on December 7th of that year; he had two children, Antonia and Ryan, with Benvin while he was still married to Addolori. Anthony was involved with social causes and civil rights during his life, providing funding for the Spanish-Speaking People’s Congress and raising money for the legal defense of Latino youths in the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder trial. He served as a panelist at the 1970 Mexican-American Conference, and he narrated a 1971 documentary about job discrimination against Hispanic Americans for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Quinn became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1947.
Death
On June 3, 2001, Quinn passed away at the age of 86 from respiratory failure related to complications from radiation treatment he had received for lung cancer. His funeral took place at the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island, and he was buried in his favorite spot in his backyard in Bristol, Rhode Island. The year after his death, the National Council of La Raza began giving out the Anthony Quinn Award for Excellence in Motion Pictures at the ALMA Awards.
Awards and Nominations
Quinn earned four Academy Award nominations, winning Best Actor in a Supporting Role for “Viva Zapata!” (1953) and “Lust for Life” (1957); he was also nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for “Wild Is the Wind” (1958) and “Zorba the Greek” (1965). The Golden Globes honored him with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1987, and he received nominations for Best Supporting Actor for “Lust for Life” (1957), Best Actor – Drama for “Lawrence of Arabia” (1963) and “Zorba the Greek” (1965), Best Actor – Comedy or Musical for “The Secret of Santa Vittoria” (1970), and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for “Gotti” (1997). In 1988, Anthony earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for “Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988), and in 1964, he won a National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for “Zorba the Greek.”
Quinn received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Golden Camera, Germany (1996), Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (2001), and Chamizal Independent Film Festival (2003) as well as the Huelva Latin American Film Festival’s Prize of the City of Huelva (2001). Quinn earned Laurel Award nominations for Top Male Dramatic Performance for “Wild Is the Wind” (1958), Top Action Performance for “Last Train from Gun Hill” (1960), Male Dramatic Performance for “The Shoes of the Fisherman” (1970), and Male Star (1970), and he also received nominations from the BAFTA Awards (“Lawrence of Arabia” and “Zorba the Greek”) and Satellite Awards (“Gotti”). In 1960, Anthony received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
