Distinguished actor Jose Ferrer was born on January 8, 1912, in Puerto Rico  He was the first Latino actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1950 for his performance in the film Cyrano de Bergerac.  The family moved to New York in 1914. Ferrer studied at the Swiss boarding school Institut Le Rosey

Ferrer received a Tony Award for his performance of Cyrano de Bergerac and a Distinguished Dramatic Actor Award for his performance in the play The Shrike.  As a stage director, he received an Outstanding Director Award for The Shrike, The Fourposter, and Stalag 17.

Ferrer was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and in 1985 received the National Medal of the Arts from President Ronald Reagan, the first actor to ever receive that honor.

While very successful on stage, Ferrer is mostly known to millions of fans for his work in film.  In addition Cyrano de Bergerac, Ferrer played Toulouse-Lautrec was directed by the great John Huston in  Moulin Rouge (1949);  The Caine Mutiny (1954); The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and Ship of Fools (1965) for directed by Stanley Kramer.  Early on Ferrer was under contract with 20th Century Fox to direct films.  

While he often returned to Broadway to much success, he was mostly working in film.  Beginning in the  70’s he began doing television.  He narrated the first episode of the popular 1964 sitcom Bewitched, in mock-documentary style. He worked on the television film version of Anthony Lewis’ Gideon’s Trumpet, opposite Henry Fonda in an Emmy-nominated performance as Clarence Earl Gideon.  His major acting roles in some of the time’s most popular TV shows at the time were many.  

One of the most notable actors in American cinema, Ferrer passed away on January 26, 1992, but not before he left a legacy that lives on in the history of theater, film, and television.  Ferrer’s sons Rafael Ferrer and Miguel Ferrer, his daughter Letty Ferrer, and his granddaughter Tessa Ferrer also became actors and actresses.

On April 26, 2012, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in Ferrer’s honor in its Distinguished Americans series.

— Latin Heat News Service

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