Miguel Angel Suarez
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Miguel Angel Suarez (born Miguelangel Suarez 5 July 1939 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a well-known Puerto Rican soap opera and movie actor.
Miguel and his sister were born into a middle class family and raised in the Santurce section of San Juan. His father worked at a local supermarket and his mother was a housewife. Once, when Miguel was only a child, he went with his mother to see a play. This was his first experience with the theater. Miguel was so impressed, after the curtains rose and the actors did their show, that he knew that he wanted to become an actor.
Miguel went to school and received his primary and secondary education in his hometown. When Miguel and his sister returned from school, their mother would either read stories or prepare little plays which helped to develop their imagination.
The supermarket, where the elder Suarez worked at was located next to the radio station "Radio El Mundo". Manuel Mendez Ballester, a well known playwright, who worked as a writer for the radio station, would frequently visit the supermarket. Miguel's father, soon became friends with Ballester. One day, in 1947, Ballester told the elder Saurez that he was in need of an 8-year-old for the protagonist role in a play that he wrote, because the person he had in mind didn't pass the audition. When the elder Suarez realized that the "part" paid more than what he was making working in the supermarket, he took Miguel to the audition the next day and that was the beginning of Miguel's acting career.
In 1956, when Miguel was 17 years old, he enlisted in the Navy and was assigned to the submarine division. He traveled the world and learned about different customs and cultures.
When Miguel was discharged from the Navy, he returned to Puerto Rico but found that the artistic class in the island was going through a crisis. Since he was unable to get an acting job, Miguel decided to try his luck elsewhere. He went to Argentina where he landed a role in the soap opera Amor Gitano (Gypsy Love). He later went to Venezuela where he became a renowned actor after participating in the soap operas Corazon de Diamante (Heart of Diamonds) and Laura Benson. In Puerto Rico he participated in many locally produced soap operas, among which was Vivir Para Ti (I live for You). In 1994 he was cast in Señora Tentacion (Mrs. Temptation) with Mexican movie star Lucia Mendez. This soap opera was a "hit" in the Caribbean, Central and South America and in Europe.
In 1971, Miguel was cast in the locally produced Woody Allen movie Bananas with Jacobo Morales. He then went to Hollywood and in 1981 landed a role in the movie Stir Crazy, directed by Sidney Poitier starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.
Among the other movies in which Miquel has participated in are: La Gran Fiesta (1985); Isabel la Negra (1990) with Miriam Colon and Raul Julia; Havana (1990) produced by Sidney Pollack and Under Suspicion (2000) with Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Nydia Caro.
