By Bobby M. Reyes of Sorsogon City, Philippines, and West Covina, California

M ovie actor Francesco D. Quinn died of an apparent heart attack yesterday, Aug. 5, 2011, at his Malibu, California, residence while he was exercising with his children. Francesco is the son of Hollywood’s legendary actor, Anthony Quinn.

He is survived by his wife, Julie McCann Quinni, and their 8-year-old twins, Max and Michaela.

Francesco Quinn’s death was confirmed this morning to this writer by his public-relations assistant, Francisca Garcia.

Francesco and this writer befriended each other. He and I were planning on putting up a "Quinn" movie studio in Magallanes town of Sorsogon Province and reviving its colonial-Spanish shipyard to build replicas of the galleons used in the Spanish expeditions of 1519-1522 and 1564-1565. And then doing full-length movies of both expeditions, as commanded by Fernando de Magallanes and Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, respectively. Francesco was supposed to play the roles of Magellan and Legazpi in the up-and-coming movie epics.

To read more about the plans of Francesco Quinn and Bobby Reyes for Sorsogon Province, please click on this link: “Resurrecting” Anthony Quinn as the “Celebrity Endorser” of the Filipino Movie-and-Tourism Industries

The MabuhayRadio article also tells how this writer met Francesco Quinn and how they developed the plans to build a lasting memorial to his father, Anthony Quinn. This writer also promised that for his help, a new Performing Arts Center in the Bulan-Magallanes Corridor of Sorsogon Province would be named after Francesco Quinn. Now, it is up to Bobby Reyes and his friends and the Quinn Family to continue the dream and finish the testament that will now be known as the Anthony-and-Francesco Quinn Memorial.

The members of the Media Breakfast Club of Los Angeles, California, and the Magallanes2021.com Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/magellan2021/) are highly saddened by the unexpected demise of Francesco Quinn. He will be remembered and as planned, the memorial to the Quinn Father-and-Son would be continued.

Editor’s Note: More details about Francesco’s death and funeral arrangements will be published in subsequent articles in this website.

Here are some information about the life and career of Francesco Quinn, as found in the Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Quinn

QUOTE.

Francesco Daniele Quinn (born March 22, 1963) is an Italian-born American actor. The third son of Oscar winner Anthony Quinn, Francesco is perhaps best known for his breakout role as Rhah in Oliver Stone’s Academy Award-winning Platoon (1986).

Francesco Quinn was born in Rome, Italy, the son of Anthony Quinn and second wife Iolanda Quinn, a noted costume designer to whom Anthony Quinn would remain married for 31 years.[1] Quinn has Mexican, Irish, and Italian ancestry.

Quinn has appeared in many feature films including the New York Independent Film Festival winner Placebo Effect. He acted with his father in several films, including A Star For Two with Lauren Bacall. The two Quinns also had the opportunity to share the role of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, son and father playing the character as a young and old man.

Quinn has sometimes played moody, dangerous characters, such as vampire Vlad Tepes in the direct to video alt-historical thriller Vlad (2003), and wandering warrior Thane Le Mal in the short film The Gnostic. Like his father, Quinn has also appeared in historical dramas, playing such roles as Latino Captain Salamanca in Steven Spielberg’s mini-series Into the West (2005) and a lead role in TNT's Rough Riders (1997) (TV). One of Quinn’s earliest roles was as Marcus Vinicius in the 1985 mini-series Quo Vadis?.

More recent examples of Francesco Quinn's work include Park, which won the audience award at 2007 CineVegas, and the short film Muertas, starring Golden Globe-winner America Ferrera. In 2007 he appeared as Ruben Vega in the Academy Award-nominated short film The Tonto Woman, adapted from the Elmore Leonard short story.

From 1999 to 2001, Francesco appeared on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless and was nominated for an ALMA Award (an award reserved for Latino/a performers) as Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Soap Opera for his work as Tomas Del Cerro, an aloof writer from New York.

Quinn has also appeared extensively in television guest star roles in crime and thriller dramas. He was lead guest star in an episode of JAG (1995). On CBS’s The Fugitive, Quinn played Victor Gutierrez, a DEA agent with an edge, and he has played the recurring role of villain Syed Ali on Fox’s series 24. Other TV guest starring roles have occurred in Criminal Minds, ER, CSI: Miami, The Glades, Navy NCIS, Alias, Crossing Jordan, In the Heat of the Night, Miami Vice, Red Shoe Diaries, The Handler, Soldier of Fortune, Good vs. Evil, Vengeance Unlimited, and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. Quinn also portrayed the final criminal/villain, Guillermo Beltran, in the long-running F/X series, The Shield. In 2008, Quinn joined Luke Perry and C. Thomas Howell in the western film A Gunfighter's Pledge.

Quinn was one of the earlier working actors to branch out into contributing to video games with his role as a main character in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999). In 2010-2011 he took part in the Italian TV series 'Il Commissario Manara 2'.[2]

He also voiced Mirage/dino in Transformers Dark of the Moon.

UNQUOTE.