Anthony Quinn once admitted ‘anger’ at home country Mexico for ‘rejecting’ him: ‘Rough’ | Films | Entertainment

Channel 5 will air Barabbas today, the biblical drama starring Anthony Quinn. When Pontius Pilate offers to pardon either Jesus or the thief Barabbas, the people ask for Barabbas’s release. But when this is granted, he returns to a life of crime and is sentenced to work in an underground mine. Quinn stars in the title role as the murderer and thief pardoned in place of Christ.

He was a Mexican actor, film director, painter and sculptor, among other things, known for winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice: for Viva Zapata! in 1952 and Lust for Life in 1956

Quinn was unique in that he was born to an Irish immigrant father from County Cork, and a Mexican mother.

He grew up in Chihuahua, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution, which saw armed conflicts in the country for a decade from 1910.

As the LA Times recalled in a 2001 obituary, he was extremely vocal about his identity.

This was perfectly exemplified in a 1981 interview when he admitted to feeling rejected by his home country.

He said: “Those were rough times, right from the beginning.

“With a name like Quinn, I wasn’t totally accepted by the Mexican community in those days, and as a Mexican I wasn’t accepted as an American.

“So as a kid I just decided, well, ‘A plague on both your houses. I’ll just become a world citizen.’ So that’s what I did. Acting is my nationality.”

Looking back on his career, Quinn was especially proud of his portrayal of Mexican and Native American roles, which he believed helped broaden his audience’s understanding.

In a 1978 interview, he said: “I fought early to go beyond the stereotypes and demand Mexicans and Indians be treated with dignity in films.”

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At the time, he was filming “The Children of Sanchez,” in which he portrayed the patriarch Jesus Sanchez, based on anthropologist Oscar Lewis’ study of a family in Mexico during the Sixties.

Quinn added: “You know, the character in ‘The Ox-Bow Incident’ [which Quinn played opposite Henry Fonda in 1943] was the most influential depiction of a Mexican for its time.

“He was a young outlaw but a young outlaw who spoke eight languages.”

Back in 1943, Quinn said it was his Irish name “that makes me speak out” – referring to the time he raised funds for an appeal when young Mexican boys from East Los Angeles were convicted of murder following a gang killing.

The verdict was later reversed, thanks in part to Quinn’s stand.

At the 1983 rededication ceremony for the Anthony Quinn Library, Lupe Leyvas of Montebello, whose brother Henry was one of the principal defendants in the trial, threw her arms around Quinn and told anyone who would listen: “If it hadn’t been for the help we got from him to raise money, they would have sat there in jail. Nobody would have cared.”

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Later, in 1995, he spoke to the LA Times alongside his son shortly after turning 80, covering the topic he always seemed to return to: identity.

He said: “I’ve never accepted discrimination against myself. I’ve always walked proudly, maybe too much so, never apologise for being Mexican.”

Quinn said he never camouflaged his Mexican heritage like other old Hollywood contenders and felt he suffered personally and professionally for it.

He continued: “At that time Hollywood–hell, America–looked down on anybody not blond or blue-eyed as potential enemies.

“We all had to put up with it. I always said I was Mexican, Indian and Irish.

“The only Mexican leading man was Gilbert Roland but he told everyone he was Spanish.”

He also echoed the tougher times from his childhood, adding: “I’m sorry to say my home country never really accepted me as Mexican.

“If I had a Mexican name and won two Oscars, I’d be a god to Mexicans everywhere.

“But I’ve never been taken up as anyone’s hero. They don’t know whether to treat me as Mexican or Irish because of my name.”