An acting chameleon who can easily lose himself in the life of his film
and television characters, Clifton Collins Jr. is a native Angeleno who
grew up destined to become a part of the Latino entertainment industry.
His great-grandparents on his mother's side were a Mexican trumpet
player and Spanish dancer who formed a traveling family act, and his
grandfather was well-known character actor
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, most
famous for his humorous sidekick roles in 1950s/1960s
John Wayne westerns (he played the
excitable hotel keeper in
Rio Bravo (1959)) and in sitcoms. His
uncle and aunt dabbled in the business at one point as well. While his
famous grandfather was unable to break out of the old unflattering
Latino stereotypes, Collins Jr. has done Pedro proud in the new
millennium. Playing everything from policemen to boxers to serial
killers, he has managed to transcend the typical racial trappings of
his grandfather's era and play flesh-and-blood, three-dimensional
characters. It was not always that way.
Born short, lean and mean on June 16, 1970, he started his career in
1988 using his real name of Collins, but two years later began billing
himself as "Clifton Gonzales-Gonzales" as a tribute to his aged
grandfather and his early accomplishments. Pedro, who died in 2006,
lived long enough to witness his grandson's achievements. Toiling in
typical "barrio" roles at the beginning of his career, Collins Jr.
found himself stuck in bit parts either as a struggling blue-collar
worker or urban thug. In the mid-1990s, he began to search out and wing
standout roles that enabled him to break the confines of the Latino
stereotype. He slowly moved up in billing, even in mediocre material
such as the futuristic prison film
Fortress - Die Festung (1992) and the mindless 1970s
rock-era comedy
Chicks - Total bekifft und wild auf Girls (1994). His
breakout role as Cesar, the vicious student and gangbanger in
187 - Eine tödliche Zahl (1997) opposite
Los Angeles substitute teacher
Samuel L. Jackson, set him on the
right path. This led to a mesmerizing collection of other portrayals,
both good-guy and bad-guy, in such films as
The Replacement Killers - Die Ersatzkiller (1998),
Ein Anzug für jede Gelegenheit (1998)
and Tigerland (2000). His versatility
finally tested, he played everything from a gay Mexican hitman in the
critically acclaimed Traffic - Macht des Kartells (2000) to a
psychological profiler for the FBI in the mainstream actioner
Mindhunters (2004). A number of top
guest appearances came his way on such series as
New York Cops: NYPD Blue (1993) and
Twilight Zone (2002)
and he had recurring roles on
Resurrection Blvd. (2000)
and Alias: Die Agentin (2001).
A monumental shift forward in his career happened recently with his
hypnotic portrayal of killer Perry Smith, the object of writer
Truman Capote's obsession, in the
art-house favorite Capote (2005). Decades
ago, Robert Blake played the same
part in the gripping Capote book-to-film
Kaltblütig (1967). This heralded
achievement has enabled Collins to move into the co-producer's chair of
late, notably for
Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006),
in which he inhabits the role of serial killer
Kenneth Bianchi. Obviously, there is
plenty more in the works for this major talent.
More recent millennium work includes potent performances in Road Dogz (2002); Tom Cool (2009), which he produced; Dirty (2005); For Your Own Good (1996), which he co-produced; Star Trek (2009); Die Hollywood-WG: Schmeiß die Loser aus dem Haus (2012); The Safe - Niemand wird verschont (2017); and the Oscar-winning Once Upon a Time In... Hollywood (2019).
