Actor José Ferrer was born on January 8, 1912 in Puerto Rico.
At the age of 6 he moved with his family to the United States. There, after completing his secondary studies, he studied architecture at Princeton University. He started working as an architect, but felt a vocation for acting and soon after decided to leave his profession to dedicate himself to being an actor.
He began, like so many other actors, with small roles in a Broadway play, his debut being in 1935 with the play “Spring Dance”. A few years later, in 1940, he interpreted the play “Charlie’s Aunt”, where he began to shine as an actor, and, in 1938, and also on stage, he interpreted Yago in “Othello”, a play that achieved great success both with critics and with the public.
But when Ferrer definitively established himself as an actor was in 1946, when he played “Cyrano de Bergerac”, in a brilliant role with which he won the Theater Prize of that year.
In 1948 he made the leap to the big screen, and he did so with the film Juana de Arco, for which he was nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actor. After 2 years he plays “Cyrano de Bergerac” again, this time the film version, for which he is again nominated, this time getting the best actor statuette.
In 1952 he worked on the feature film Moulin Rouge, which he also produced, earning another Oscar nomination, and later on as producer and director, in the film “The Shrike”.
The actor continued to reap successes, and left us in his filmography other titles such as “The Magnificent Man”, “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Dune”, “The Caine Mutiny”, “The Ship of Fools”, “I accuse” , “The coast of love”, “Return to Peyton Place” or “State Fair”, among many others.
Later, in the 70s and 80s, he opted for the small screen, where he also carried out a lot of work.
It should be noted that, in 1985, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts, being the first time that an actor achieved such a distinction.
Regarding his personal life, he married the singer and also actress Rosemary Clooney. One of his sons, Miguel, is also an actor. In addition, José Ferrer is the uncle of actor George Clooney.
José Ferrer died on January 26, 1992 in Miami, Florida.