Raul Julia was a magnetic presence both on stage and screen, captivating audiences with his intense and versatile performances. Known for roles ranging from the sinister Mack the Knife in The Threepenny Opera to the passionate political prisoner in Kiss of the Spider Woman, and most memorably as the delightfully spooky Gomez Addams in The Addams Family (1991), Julia brought a rare energy to every character he played.
Born Raul Rafael Julia y Arcelay in 1940 in Floral Park, a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he came from a family of means—his mother was a former opera singer, and his father was an electrical engineer turned restaurateur. Thanks to their success, Raul received a top-tier education at the private Catholic school Colegio Espiritu Santo. It was there that he first stepped onto the stage, playing the Devil in a school play, which sparked his early interest in acting. A childhood viewing of Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) further cemented his dream of becoming an actor.
Julia continued to perform and produce plays at Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola and later at the University of Puerto Rico. Though his parents encouraged him to study law, Raul briefly attended Fordham University in New York before returning home to pursue acting full-time. Encouraged by actor Orson Bean—who saw him perform during a visit to Puerto Rico—Julia relocated to the U.S. in 1964.
Upon arriving in New York City, Julia worked odd jobs while training and gradually building his career in Off-Broadway productions. His big break came in 1967 when he caught the attention of Joseph Papp, founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival. Papp hired him as a stage manager for a production of Hamlet and soon cast him in other plays. By 1969, Julia was starring on Broadway in The Cuban Thing and Arthur Kopit’s Indians, and also took on leading roles with the New York Shakespeare Festival, earning a Tony nomination for his 1972 performance in Two Gentlemen of Verona.
In addition to his stage work, Julia began appearing in films during this time. He was featured in The Panic in Needle Park (1971) and The Organization (1971), and made guest appearances on Sesame Street (1969–) as Raul the Fix-It Man. While film roles came slowly at first, the stage remained his main focus. He earned two more Tony nominations in the 1970s—first for Where’s Charley? in 1974 and again for his portrayal of Mack the Knife in The Threepenny Opera in 1976.
Julia’s cinematic career began to gain momentum in the late 1970s and into the 1980s. He received critical acclaim for his role as Count Dracula in a Tony-winning revival of Dracula, and delivered a powerful performance opposite Meryl Streep in The Taming of the Shrew. His portrayal of a political prisoner in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), directed by Hector Babenco, earned him a Golden Globe nomination and brought him wider recognition. This led to roles in a number of high-profile films, including Compromising Positions (1985), The Morning After (1986), Moon Over Parador (1988), Tequila Sunrise (1988), and Romero (1989), where he played the titular Salvadoran archbishop.
On television, Julia was especially memorable as Aristotle Onassis in the miniseries Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (ABC, 1986). However, it was his role as the eccentric and loving Gomez Addams in The Addams Family (1991) that brought him into the mainstream consciousness. The production was famously demanding—Julia even suffered a ruptured blood vessel in his eye during filming—but the film was a box office hit and led to a sequel, Addams Family Values (1993), which was released to moderate success.
Unfortunately, Addams Family Values would be the last feature film released during Julia’s lifetime. In the early 1990s, his health began to deteriorate due to complications from stomach cancer or infection, causing severe weight loss and fatigue. Despite his declining condition, he remained active in both television and theater. He starred in the Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha (1992), the HBO film The Burning Season, and the action film Street Fighter. Julia completed his final performance as a fugitive military torturer in Down Came a Blackbird (Showtime, 1995) just two weeks before being hospitalized for severe abdominal pain on October 16, 1994.
That same evening, Raul Julia suffered a stroke, slipped into a coma, and passed away on October 24, 1994. His body was returned to Puerto Rico for a state funeral attended by thousands, while tributes were also held in New York at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. In recognition of his powerful performance in The Burning Season, Julia was posthumously honored with an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, leaving behind a legacy of passion, dedication, and unforgettable artistry.
Raul Julia’s most acclaimed film is Presumed Innocent (1990), which is widely regarded as his highest-rated performance on screen. On the other hand, his role in Street Fighter (1994) is often cited as his least favorably reviewed work. While Raul Julia brought depth and intensity to many of his roles, these two films tend to stand out—on opposite ends of the spectrum—in discussions about his filmography.