José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors—or, indeed, actors of any ethnicity—during his lifetime and after, with a career spanning nearly 60 years between 1935 and 1992. He achieved prominence for his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac in the play of the same name, which earned him the inaugural Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1947. He reprised the role in a 1950 film version and won an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him both the first Hispanic and the first Puerto Rican–born actor to win an Academy Award.
Benjamin Bratt is an American actor. He is known for playing Paco Aguilar in Blood In Blood Out. He had supporting film roles in the 1990s in Demolition Man (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), and The River Wild (1994). From 1995 to 1999, he starred as Detective Reynaldo Curtis on the NBC drama series Law & Order.
Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor. He was known for his intense and varied roles on stage and screen. He started his career in the Public Theatre before transitioning to film. He received numerous accolades including a Drama Desk Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for four Tony Awards. In 2017, The Daily Telegraph named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
Jimmy L. Smits is an American actor. He is best known for playing attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s–1990s legal drama L.A. Law, NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s–2000s police drama NYPD Blue, and Matt Santos on the political drama The West Wing. He appeared in Switch (1991), My Family (1995), The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), and In the Heights (2021). He also appeared as Bail Organa in the Star Wars franchise and as ADA Miguel Prado in Dexter. From 2012 to 2014, he was a member of the main cast of Sons of Anarchy, in the role of Nero Padilla. Smits also portrayed Elijah Strait in the NBC drama series Bluff City Law.
Justin Kirk is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Prior Walter in the HBO miniseries Angels in America (2003), for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, and Andy Botwin in the Showtime dark comedy series Weeds (2005–2012).
Michael Imperioli is an American actor, novelist, screenwriter and musician. He is best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in the HBO crime drama series The Sopranos (1999–2007), which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004.
Stephen Root is an American actor. He has starred as Jimmy James on the NBC sitcom NewsRadio (1995–1999), as Milton Waddams in the film Office Space (1999), and voiced Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickland on the animated series King of the Hill (1997–2010).
Herman Santiago is a Puerto Rican rock and roll pioneer and songwriter who was previously a member of the vocal group Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. He (disputedly) co-wrote the group's iconic hit "Why Do Fools Fall in Love".
Miguel José Ferrer was an American actor. His breakthrough role was as Bob Morton in the 1987 film RoboCop. Other film roles include Harbinger in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), Quigley in Blank Check, Eduardo Ruiz in Traffic (2000) and Vice President Rodriguez in Iron Man 3 (2013). Ferrer's notable television roles include FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield on Twin Peaks, Dr. Garret Macy on Crossing Jordan (2001–2007) and NCIS Assistant Director Owen Granger on NCIS: Los Angeles (2012–2017).
Kirk M. Acevedo is an American actor. He is primarily known for his work on television for the portrayals of Miguel Alvarez in the HBO series Oz, Joe Toye in Band of Brothers, and FBI Agent Charlie Francis in the science-fiction series Fringe. His best-known films are The Thin Red Line, Dinner Rush and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. He also portrayed the character of José Ramse on Syfy's 12 Monkeys (2015–2018), as well as comic book villain Ricardo Diaz / The Dragon on The CW's Arrow (2017–2019).
Jon Seda is an American actor. Seda was an amateur boxer who auditioned for and was given a role in the 1992 boxing film Gladiator. He played the role of Chris Pérez alongside Jennifer Lopez in the movie Selena, and portrayed U.S. Marine John Basilone, recipient of the Medal of Honor, in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's The Pacific. On television, he had roles as Detective Antonio Dawson in NBC's Chicago P.D., and as Paul Falsone in NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street.
Richard Dale Jenkins is an American actor. He is well known for his portrayal of deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series Six Feet Under (2001–2005). He began his career in theater at the Trinity Repertory Company and made his film debut in 1974. He has worked steadily in film and television since the 1980s, mostly in supporting roles. His eclectic body of work includes such films as The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Little Nikita (1988), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), The Mudge Boy (2003), Burn After Reading (2008), Step Brothers (2008), Let Me In (2010), Jack Reacher (2012), The Cabin in the Woods (2012), Bone Tomahawk (2015), The Last Shift (2020), The Humans (2021), and Nightmare Alley (2021).
Renoly Santiago is a Puerto Rican actor, singer and writer known for his appearances in films such as Dangerous Minds, Hackers and Con Air, and in television series such as Touched by an Angel and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Paul Calderón is a Puerto Rican actor, writer, director and producer. He is a founding member of the Touchstone Theatre, the American Folk Theatre and the LAByrinth Theater Company. He is also a member of the Actors Studio, auditioning and accepted as a member in 1984 alongside Melissa Leo and two other actors. He is best known for portraying Raymond Cruz in the 1998 crime comedy film Out of Sight and the 2023 neo-Western crime drama miniseries Justified: City Primeval.
Joe Negroni was an American singer of Puerto Rican descent. He was a rock and roll pioneer and founding member of the rock and roll group Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He is best known for his role of Captain Roy Montgomery from 2009 to 2011 on ABC's Castle. In November 2011, he appeared on Broadway in Lydia R. Diamond's play Stick Fly. In 2013, he starred in the TV series Low Winter Sun, a police drama set in Detroit. In 2021, he was nominated for best adaptation by the Screen Writers Guild for the film version of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
Dale Raoul is an American film and television actress known for her role as Maxine Fortenberry, mother of Hoyt Fortenberry, in the HBO television series True Blood.
Chance Perdomo was an American and British actor. He earned a British Academy Television Award nomination for his performance in the BBC Three film Killed by My Debt (2018). He gained further prominence through his roles as Ambrose Spellman in the Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020) and Andre Anderson in the first season of the Amazon Prime Video series Gen V (2023). He also appeared in the films After We Fell (2021), After Ever Happy (2022), and After Everything (2023). He died from a motorcycle accident while travelling to begin filming for the second season of Gen V.
