Rodolfo Acosta - Biography

Mexican character actor Rodolfo Acosta (born Rodolfo Acosta Pérez) achieved his greatest success in the US, primarily as a villain in westerns. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and married Jeanine Cohen, a woman he met in Casablanca during the North African campaign. (She later filed for divorce as a result of his affair with actress Ann Sheridan in the 1950s.) After the war, Acosta worked in Mexico in films of the great director Emilio Fernández, which led to a bit in John Ford's film Dieu est mort (1947). He came to the US and was signed by Universal for a small role in L'impasse maudite (1950). He stayed in the US and his sharp, ruthless features led him to a long succession of roles as bandits, Indian warriors and outlaws. In The Tijuana Story (1957), he actually had a sympathetic leading role, but in general he spent his career as a very familiar western bad guy. He died in 1974 at the age of 54, leaving five children.