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CNN Live Sunday

Actor Anthony Quinn Dead at Age 86

Aired June 03, 2001 - 17:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: We are just learning now that Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Quinn has died today at the age of 86. Quinn, as you know, appeared in dozens of films as varied as "Zorba the Greek" and "The Last Action Hero."

Here's CNN's Cynthia Tornquist now looking at one of Hollywood's longest-running careers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Let's go.

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CYNTHIA TORNQUIST, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He often told people he was Zorba, and it was surely Anthony Quinn's most famous role, both on screen, on Broadway, and on tour.

ANTHONY QUINN, ACTOR: I have not determined to be Zorba. I think I've gotten closer to him. Sometimes, I don't know where Zorba ends and where Tony begins.

TORNQUIST: But Quinn, who has borne in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1915, made some 275 films, winning two Oscars: One as a Mexican revolutionary in "Viva Zapata!" and another as Paul Gaugin in "Lust for Life." Quinn recently starred opposite Keanu Reeves in a walk in the clouds.

Quinn's romantic indiscretions have perhaps made his as infamous as his acting has made him famous. A long marriage to Cecil B. DeMille's daughter Katherine ended in his involvement with several other women, including his second wife, who was pregnant when they got married and had already bore him two sons previously. That 30-year marriage ended when his former assistant, 50 years his junior, announced she was pregnant with Quinn's daughter, believed to be his twelfth child.

QUINN: A lot of things I don't want to forget, but a lot of things one should forget, because your brain gets so muddled with your guilts and guilts kill.

TORNQUIST: Another passion in Quinn's life was art. He was an accomplished painter and sculptor, and proud that his work was well received.

QUINN: This is not done by anybody but just me, and the fact they like me, they like what I have done, is the important thing.

TORNQUIST: Quinn also starred on television in such movies as "The Old Man and the Sea."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA")

QUINN: I love and respect you very much. But before this day ends, I will kill you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TORNQUIST: Success as an actor did not come easily for Quinn, who, because of his Mexican heritage, was type-cast for years playing bandits and Indians. So, he left Hollywood for Broadway in the late '40s. It wasn't until 1954, when Fellini's "La Strada" was released, that Quinn became an international star, and it's a status he maintained for the rest of his career.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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