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Tomas Milian
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Miami Vice Character
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General Octavio Arroyo ("Bought and Paid For")
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Born
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March 3, 1933, Havana, Cuba
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Died
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March 22, 2017, Miami, Florida (age 84, stroke)
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Active
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1957-2017
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Spouse/Children
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Margherita Valetti (1964-2012; her death), one child
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Tomas Quintin Rodriguez (March 3, 1933 – March 22, 2017) was a Cuban actor, known by Tomas Milian, who appeared in the show Miami Vice as General Octavio Arroyo, former dictator of Bolivia who was "caught on the wrong side of a coup" and deposed, not before absconding with a significant sum from the treasury, who uses some of that to buy off the mother of Odette Ribaud (played by Lynn Whitfield) to stop Odette from pursuing a rape charge against Arroyo's son Nico (played by Joaquim de Almeida) in the episode "Bought and Paid For".
Career[]
Milian was born in Havana, Cuba. His father was arrested (and later committed suicide) after Fulgencio Batista took power of the country. Milian later left Cuba to emigrate to the United States, where he became an American citizen and began studying acting at the New York City Actor's Studio. After making his American TV debut in the series Decoy and The Millionaire, Milian relocated to Italy in 1959, where he made dozens of Italian movie appearances, mostly in the "spaghetti western" genre. He made his American movie debut in 1965's The Agony and the Ecstasy, his next American movie appearance was in 1971's Last Movie (with Sylvia Miles), then 1982's Monsignor. He finally returned to the United States and appeared in the TV shows The Equalizer (episode with Keith Szarabajka, Paul Calderon, and Christopher Murney), L.A. Law (episode with Jimmy Smits), Murder, She Wrote (episode with Ismael "East" Carlo), Oz (with Rita Moreno & Terry Kinney), and his final TV appearance in Law & Order. In movies, Milian appeared in JFK (with Jay O. Sanders), The Cowboy Way (with Luis Guzman & Matthew Cowles), and his final movie appearance, 2014's Fugly! (with John Leguizamo).
Personal life and death[]
Milian married Margherita "Rita" Valetti in 1964 until her death, and they have one son, Tommasso (born 1982). Milian died on March 22, 2017 in Miami from a stroke.