Paul Shenar

Paul Shenar had the look of someone who has seen it all and doesn't care much about the outcome. In 1983 he landed on the set of Scarface to play Alejandro Sosa. He wasn't your typical textbook villain because his evil never shouted.

That Bolivian coolness earned him the mainstream recognition that the stage had denied him.

Brian De Palma wanted someone who could intimidate Al Pacino without needing a machine gun. And he found him in this actor from Milwaukee. Shenar didn't need theatrics to be deadly on camera.

From the San Francisco Stage to the Hollywood Pavement

Before the spotlight of Los Angeles, he spent years at the American Conservatory Theater, where he honed his craft with Shakespeare and Chekhov. His voice was his sharpest tool, and he used it with surgical precision that made his fellow cast members nervous.

In 1982, he lent that same voice to Jenner in The Secret of NIMH.

It's curious that one of his most remembered works is a cartoon rat. But Shenar treated every script like a Greek tragedy, so his style was always that of a man hiding something sinister behind a facade of elegance.

His discipline was almost military, and he allowed no major mistakes on set.

The Silence of His Final Years

In the mid-1980s, his career seemed stuck in roles as sadistic executives or elegant mobsters. In 1987, he appeared in Best Seller alongside James Woods. He was a first-rate supporting actor who improved any mediocre scene just by walking into the frame.

But the industry was beginning to look the other way.

Her private life stayed discreet for decades. She had a long-term romantic relationship with British actor Jeremy Brett that lasted several years. Those were different times, and discretion was not a choice but a survival strategy in the California studio system.

In 1989, he died of complications from AIDS at his home in West Hollywood.

He was 53 years old.

The autopsy confirmed that the illness was the direct cause of his death on October 11.