Raul Julia

In Presumed Innocent (1990), Raúl Juliá makes Sandy Stern's legal talk worth listening to for more than the information. His authority is quiet, which suits a film that asks us to watch Harrison Ford closely and distrust easy answers. We warmed to his steadiness: even when the plot needed information, he made the person delivering it worth our attention. It is a good place to notice how little he needs to insist on his presence.

Alan J. Pakula gives his supporting actors enough importance to keep Ford from becoming the only person who matters. Juliá belongs beside Brian Dennehy and Bonnie Bedelia in that careful balance, keeping us interested whenever the mystery needs information supplied. The film can grow too solemn, and even good actors cannot remove that drag entirely. What he supplies is a reason to keep listening while Pakula makes us wait.

There is more overt force elsewhere in his work, drawing on the vocal power and physical energy of his classical and musical theatre background. His critical breakthrough, Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), paired him with William Hurt and showed his ability to play a complicated man with dignity. The comedy that followed deserves to be taken just as seriously.

With Barry Sonnenfeld directing and Anjelica Huston as Morticia, The Addams Family (1991) gave that energy a farcical use. Gomez Addams brought him a wider audience, followed by a return in the 1993 sequel. The appeal is his willingness to give the comedy the same commitment: its exaggeration needs an actor who is not embarrassed by it. We would still resist recommending every title on the strength of his name; later commercial work such as Street Fighter (1994) received mixed reviews. Start with Presumed Innocent if Gomez is the only Juliá you know, and allow Pakula a little more solemnity than he needs.