Edward James Olmos
| Sci-Fi/Fantasy | |
| IMDB.com | Edward's Website |
Edward
James Olmos was born on February 24, 1947 in East Los Angeles,
California. His ethnically diverse neighborhood - which he refers to
as a "salad bowl" because each culture kept its own unique
qualities, blending into a whole without losing its individual
flavor - contributed towards his open mindedness and ability to
welcome diversity among people.
About the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles where Eddie grew up,
he says,
"On our small lane (Cheesbrough's Lane) we had a Hispanic family
with thirteen kids, Native Americans, Koreans, Chinese, Mexicans,
Russians. It was a fantastic environment."
Eddie's
mother, Eleanor Huizar, met his father, Pedro Olmos, while visiting
Mexico City. They married and raised three children: Peter, Edward,
and Esperanza. His parents divorced when he was eight, and Eddie
found refuge in baseball as a means of staying away from street
gangs and drugs. He was such a talented ball player, he became the
Golden State batting champion.
Early in
his teen years, Eddie found a new love - music. He taught himself to
sing and play piano, and by 1961 he was good enough to join a band,
the Pacific Ocean. The band's name was Eddie's idea because
it was "the biggest thing on the West Coast." With waist long hair,
Eddie was the band's lead vocalist. "I
was a terrible singer, but, boy, could I scream and dance!"
"Purgatory."
An album released in 1968, includes such classic tunes as: "Tracks
of My Tears," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," and "16 Tons." On the
album, credit is given to 'Eddie James' as one of the musical
arrangers. Eddie also was the groups lead singer.
In the mid
1960s Eddie attended East Los Angeles College and California State
University by day and played in local clubs most of the night. He
began taking acting classes to improve the show.
"I started acting to become a better
singer. Then the whole thing switched on me. I discovered that the
spoken word is easier to project than the sung word."
One night a
young woman walked into Gazzarri's night club when the band was
playing. The daughter of actor Howard Keel, Kaija was to become
Eddie's first wife. They were married in 1971 and had two sons, Mico
and Bodie. Edward also has two adopted sons, Michael and Brandon,
and an adopted daughter, Tamiko. To support his family, Eddie took
jobs delivering antique furniture between gigs and small acting
roles. Then in 1978, during an audition for another play, he was
asked if he would like to try out for Zoot Suit, a musical
drama about the famous 1942 "Sleepy Lagoon" case in which a group of
Hispanic youths were wrongly convicted of murder.
Eddie
dazzled them at the audition, speaking the part of the narrator in
calo, a street jive dialect (a mix of English, Spanish, and Gypsy)
from East L.A. He earned the role of El Pachuco, the strutting,
posing, super macho narrator. Zoot Suit opened in 1978 at the
Mark Taper theatre with an expected run of ten days. It ran for a
year before going to Broadway. By the time the show closed, Eddie
had won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award, a Theatre World
award, and was nominated for a Tony Award.
Acting
roles came in faster after that. In 1981 he made Wolfen with
Albert Finney, and in 1982 he accepted the role of Gaff in Blade
Runner with Harrison Ford. In 1984, after difficult negotiations
in which he gained the right of creative control over his character
of Lieutenant Martin Castillo, Eddie joined the cast of the very
popular "Miami Vice."
His
popularity and fame grew tremendously with "Miami Vice." However,
Eddie was able to maintain a balanced approach.
"You have to be able to say "no" to fame
and fortune before you receive it to be able to say "no" again when
you get older," Olmos observes.
"If not, you won't have the strength and
courage to do it. The intent must be pure."
From 2002 -
2004 EJO starred as the head of
the household, Jess Gonzalez in the TV series, "American
Family." In 2006 EJO directed and produced Walkout, a movie
for HBO.And in the last 5 years , EJO starred in the Sci Fi
Channel's breakout hit, "Battlestar Galactica," as Admiral
William Adama. In 2008 he’s busy preparing for his next project in
which he will act, direct and produce “The Crystal Frontier,” a drama that examines U.S.-Mexico border
issues and the effects of the two nations' foreign-policy decisions.