Existing comment:
Edward James Olmos, born 1947
Edward James Olmos had his breakthrough as an actor in 1978 in the role of El Pachuco, the narrator in Luis Valdez's musical Zoot Suit, about the Sleepy Lagoon murder in 1942 and the subsequent riots between Euro-American servicemen and Mexican American youths. When the play moved to Broadway a year later, Olmos's electrifying performance earned him a Tony nomination and a role in the film version of the play. He became a household name in the mid- to late 1980s through his award-winning incarnation of Lieutenant Martin Castillo in the TV series Miami Vice. This was followed by an Academy Award nomination in 1988 for his down-to-earth portrayal of high school math teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver. On the wake of the film's success, Olmos, who is also an activist, lectured nationally on the need for educational reforms in Latino schools.
George RodrÃguez's double career as a celebrity photographer and a visual chronicler of the Chicano experience converge in this portrait of Olmos.
George Rodriguez, 1980 |