José Ferrer

José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director who worked across stage, film, and television. His career lasted nearly six decades, from 1935 to 1992, and he was widely regarded as one of the most distinguished Hispanic American actors of his era. He first gained major recognition for playing the title role in *Cyrano de Bergerac* on Broadway, which won him the very first Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1947. He later repeated the role in the 1950 film adaptation and won the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the first actor born in Puerto Rico to receive that honor.

Among his other notable film roles were Charles VII in *Joan of Arc* (1948), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in *Moulin Rouge* (1952), defense attorney Barney Greenwald in *The Caine Mutiny* (1954), and Alfred Dreyfus in *I Accuse!* (1958), which he also directed. He played the Turkish Bey in *Lawrence of Arabia* (1962), Siegfried Rieber in *Ship of Fools* (1965), and Emperor Shaddam IV in *Dune* (1984). On Broadway, Ferrer had a busy career both acting and directing. He won a second Tony for Best Actor for *The Shrike* and took home Best Director Tonys for *The Shrike*, *The Fourposter*, and *Stalag 17*. He also appeared many times in Shakespeare, most notably as Iago in *Othello*.

Ferrer was the father of actor Miguel Ferrer, brother of Rafael Ferrer, grandfather of actress Tessa Ferrer, and step-uncle of actor George Clooney. In 1981, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Four years later, he received the National Medal of Arts from President Reagan, the first actor to be given that award.

**Early life**

Ferrer was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Rafael Ferrer, a lawyer and writer, and María Providencia Cintrón, from Yabucoa. His paternal grandfather, Gabriel Ferrer Hernández, was a doctor and an advocate for Puerto Rican independence from Spain. He had two younger sisters, Elvira and Leticia. Because he was born into a wealthy family, his upbringing included exposure to the arts, music, and humanities.

When Ferrer was two, his mother died, and the family moved to New York in 1914. He attended Colegio San José in Río Piedras for part of his elementary education and later enrolled at the Swiss boarding school Institut Le Rosey.