Raul Julia was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He left the island in 1964, after deciding against a career in law, to pursue acting in New York. Although he retains his Hispanic accent, he has nevertheless successfully resisted typecasting to play roles of many backgrounds.

Within a few weeks of his arrival, he made his acting debut in Calderon's Life is a Dream, and for the next two years, he appeared off-Broadway and with Phoebe Brand's Theater in the Street productions ranging from Chekhov to musicals.

In 1966, he began his association with the New York Shakespeare Festival with the role of Macduff in the Festival's Mobile Unit, Spanish-language version of Macbeth. Over the past 24 years he has appeared in over a dozen productions. He has received several Tony awards and nominations for his theater work.

He is best known for his work in many films. The role for which he is best known is his brilliant portrayal of the revolutionary, Valentin, in Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985).

Despite his schedule and his success, Mr. Julia has remained committed to his beliefs. With his wife, Merel, and their two sons, he contributes his energy to The Hunger Project, dedicated to ending hunger on the planet by the year 2000. In addition, he donates his time and his name to causes such as the fight against AIDS, Youth at Risk, Earth Day 1990, and NEST and MADRE, Central American human rights organizations. He continues to support Hispanic cultural organizations such as Miriam Colon's Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, HOLA, and LA RAZA, from whom he received an award for promoting a positive image of Hispanic culture through his work; he was twice granted the Golden Eagle Award for Best Actor by NOSOTROS.


Master Student Remembered (Student Success, January, 1995)

by Dave Ellis

Raul Julia was a friend of mine. He was an accomplished actor an uncompromising contributor to the world community, and one of the master students in Becoming a Master Student.

Raul Julia died October 24, 1994, at the age of 54. He leaves behind a wife, two young sons, a mother, two sisters, and thousands of people who knew him as a friend and as a man committed to going beyond his own self-interest and ensuring that "there is a plate of food on everybody's table."

I first met Raul in 1986 at a meeting of the Hunger Project, an international organization committed to the end of hunger by the year 2000. Years later, he agreed to be interviewed for Becoming a Master Student. His Master Student Profile speaks loudly to many students who choose a career they love even though their choice includes financial risk and goes against family tradition.

Raul called me a few weeks after he had received a copy of Becoming a Master Student in which his profile was included. He said that when he showed it to his mother, she told him she was more proud of what was written about him in this book than she was about any of the movies he had starred in. In part, I imagine she was touched by the quote in the article when he said, "I love Puerto Rice, I love my culture, and I love my background."

What I now miss is the man who went on to say, "But before anything else, I am a human being...It is time to put all that cultural and nationalistic kind of flag-waving in the background. It is now time for everyone on the planet to be human beings together."

Raul also said in his Master Student profile that, "A hero is someone who goes beyond himself to make a difference for other people." He certainly fits that definition of hero. He used his craft to present powerful messages to the world. His portrayal as the Salvadorian archbishop in the film "Romero" is one of the most moving performances that I have ever seen on the screen. He also used the money he made from his profession to forward his commitments. While he lived a modest life, he gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations that could make a difference for other people and that would provide opportunity to the less fortunate around the world.

Raul often spoke in his own way about finding a bigger problem. In his Master Student profile, he talks about using that technique to transcend his own periodic lack of motivation. He says, "My commitment to end hunger inspires my acting. When I'm tired disgusted, bored, or just don't feel like it, I remember that the more successful I become the more of a difference I can make.

This is the kind of message we can constantly bring into our student success classroom, and it is this type of conversation that can assist students to give up their sense of powerlessness and move them into the kind of commitment that Raul so frequently demonstrated.