Nancy Wake, New Zealand-born Australian French Resistance leader, died from a chest infection he was , 98 .

Nancy Grace Augusta Wake AC GM served as a British agent during the later part of World War II died from a chest infection she was , 98 .  She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the French Resistance and was one of the Allies' most decorated servicewomen of the war.

(30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011) 

Early life

Born in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand in 1912, Wake was the youngest of six children. In 1914, her family moved to Sydney, Australia and settled at North Sydney.^[1] Shortly thereafter, her father, Charles Augustus Wake, returned to New Zealand, leaving her mother Ella Wake (née Rosieur; 1874–1968) to raise the children.
In Sydney, she attended the North Sydney Household Arts (Home Science) School (see North Sydney Technical High School).^[2] At the age of 16, she ran away from home and worked as a nurse. With £200 that she had inherited from an aunt, she journeyed to New York, then London where she trained herself as a journalist. In the 1930s she worked in Paris and later for Hearst newspapers as a European correspondent. She witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement, and "saw roving Nazi gangs randomly beating Jewish men and women in the streets" of Vienna.^[3]

Wartime service and Special Operations Executive

In 1937, she met wealthy French industrialist Henri Edmond Fiocca (1898–1943), whom she married on 30 November 1939. She was living in Marseille, France when Germany invaded. After the fall of France in 1940, she became a courier for the French Resistance and later joined the escape network of Captain Ian Garrow. In reference to her ability to elude capture, the Gestapo called her the White Mouse. The Resistance had to be very careful with her missions. Her life was in constant danger, with the Gestapo tapping her phone and intercepting her mail.^[4]
By 1943, she was the Gestapo's most wanted person, with a 5 million-franc price on her head. When the network was betrayed that same year, she decided to flee Marseille. Her husband, Henri Fiocca, stayed behind where he was later captured, tortured and executed by the Gestapo.^[5]
"A little powder and a little drink on the way, and I'd pass their (German) posts and wink and say, 'Do you want to search me?' God, what a flirtatious little bastard I was."^[6]
Wake had been arrested in Toulouse, but was released four days later. An acquaintance managed to have her let out by making up stories about her supposed infidelity to her husband.^[7] She succeeded, on her sixth attempt, in crossing the Pyrenees to Spain. Until the war ended, she was unaware of her husband's death and subsequently blamed herself for it.^[8]
After reaching Britain, Wake joined the Special Operations Executive. Vera Atkins, who also worked in the SOE, recalls her as "a real Australian bombshell. Tremendous vitality, flashing eyes. Everything she did, she did well." Training reports record that she was "a very good and fast shot" and possessed excellent fieldcraft. She was noted to "put the men to shame by her cheerful spirit and strength of character."^[8]
On the night of 29–30 April 1944 she was parachuted into the Auvergne, becoming a liaison between London and the local maquis group headed by Captain Henri Tardivat. Upon discovering her tangled in a tree, Captain Tardivat greeted her remarking, "I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year," to which she replied, “Don’t give me that French shit.”^[9] Her duties included allocating arms and equipment that were parachuted in and minding the group's finances. She became instrumental in recruiting more members and making the maquis groups into a formidable force, roughly 7,500 strong. She also led attacks on German installations and the local Gestapo HQ in Montluçon.^[9]
At one point Wake discovered that her men were protecting a girl that was a German spy. They did not have the heart to kill her in cold blood, but Wake did. She said after that it was war, and she had no regrets about the incident.^[10]
From April 1944 to the liberation of France, her 7,000 maquisards fought 22,000 SS soldiers, causing 1,400 casualties, while taking only 100 themselves. Her French companions, especially Henri Tardivat, praised her fighting spirit, amply demonstrated when she killed an SS sentry with her bare hands to prevent him from raising the alarm during a raid.
During a 1990s television interview, when asked what had happened to the sentry who spotted her, Wake simply drew her finger across her throat. "They'd taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE, and I practised away at it. But this was the only time I used it -- whack -- and it killed him all right. I was really surprised."^[6]
On another occasion, to replace codes her wireless operator had been forced to destroy in a German raid, Wake rode a bicycle for more than 500 miles (800 km) through several German checkpoints.^[11] During a German attack on another maquis group, Wake, along with two American officers, took command of a section whose leader had been killed. She directed the use of suppressive fire which facilitated the group's withdrawal without further losses.^[8]

Post-war

Immediately after the war, Wake was awarded the George Medal,^[12] the United States Medal of Freedom, the Médaille de la Résistance and thrice the Croix de Guerre. She learned that the Gestapo had tortured her husband to death in 1943 for refusing to disclose her whereabouts. After the war, she worked for the Intelligence Department at the British Air Ministry attached to embassies of Paris and Prague.
Wake stood as a Liberal candidate^[13] in the 1949 Australian federal election for the Sydney seat of Barton, running against Dr. Herbert Evatt, then Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs in the Ben Chifley Labor government. While Chifley lost government to Robert Menzies, Wake recorded a 13 percent swing against Evatt,^[14] with Evatt retaining the seat with 53.2 per cent of the vote on a two-party preferred basis. Wake ran against Evatt again at the 1951 federal election.
By this time, Evatt was Deputy Leader of the Opposition. The result was extremely close. However, Evatt retained the seat with a margin of fewer than 250 votes.^[15] Evatt slightly increased his margin at subsequent elections before relocating to the safer seat of Hunter by 1958.
Wake left Australia just after the 1951 election and moved back to England. She worked as an intelligence officer in the department of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff at the Air Ministry in Whitehall. She resigned in 1957 after marrying an RAF officer, John Forward, in December of that year. They returned to Australia in the early 1960s.^[9] Maintaining her interest in politics, Wake was endorsed as a Liberal candidate at the 1966 federal election for the Sydney seat of Kingsford Smith. Despite recording a swing of 6.9 per cent against the sitting Labor member Daniel Curtin, Wake was again unsuccessful.^[16] Around 1985, Wake and John Forward left Sydney to retire to Port Macquarie.
In 1985, Wake published her autobiography, The White Mouse. The book became a bestseller and has been reprinted many times.^[17]
After 40 years of marriage, her husband John Forward died at Port Macquarie on 19 August 1997; the couple had no children.
In 2001, she left Australia for the last time and emigrated to London.^[18] She became a resident at the Stafford Hotel in St James's Place, near Piccadilly, formerly a British and American forces club during the war. She had been introduced to her first "bloody good drink" there by the general manager at the time, Louis Burdet. He had also worked for the Resistance in Marseilles. In the mornings she would usually be found in the hotel bar, sipping her first gin and tonic of the day. She was welcomed at the hotel, celebrating her 90th birthday there, where the hotel owners absorbed most of the costs of her stay. In 2003, Wake chose to move to the Royal Star and Garter Home for Disabled Ex-Service Men and Women in Richmond, London, where she remained until her death.^[9]
Wake died on Sunday evening 7 August 2011, aged 98, at Kingston Hospital after being admitted with a chest infection.^[19] She had requested that her ashes be scattered at Montluçon in central France.^[20]

Honours

Wake was appointed a Chevalier (knight) of the Legion of Honour in 1970 and was promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1988.^[21]
Initially, she refused offers of decorations from Australia, saying: "The last time there was a suggestion of that I told the government they could stick their medals where the monkey stuck his nuts. The thing is if they gave me a medal now, it wouldn't be love so I don't want anything from them."^[22] It was not until February 2004, that Wake received the Companion of the Order of Australia.^[23]
In April 2006, she was awarded the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association's highest honour,^[24] the RSA Badge in Gold.^[25] Wake's medals are on display in the Second World War gallery at the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra.^[1]
On 3 June 2010, a "heritage pylon" paying tribute to Wake was unveiled on Oriental Parade in Wellington, New Zealand, near the place of her birth.^[26][27]

List of honours

Ribbon	Issuing authority	Description	Date awarded	Notes/citation
	Commonwealth of Australia	Companion of the Order of Australia	22 February 2004	The award recognises the significant contribution and commitment of Nancy Wake, stemming from her outstanding actions in wartime, in encouraging community appreciation and understanding of the past sacrifices made by Australian men and women in times of conflict, and to a lasting legacy of peace.[23]
	United Kingdom	George Medal	17 July 1945	FANY: Special operations in France[12][28]
	Commonwealth of Nations	1939–1945 Star
	Commonwealth of Nations	France and Germany Star
	United Kingdom	Defence Medal
	United Kingdom	War Medal 1939–1945
	French Republic	Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur	1970
	French Republic	Officier de la Légion d'Honneur	1988
	French Republic	Croix de Guerre		with two Palms and a Star
	United States of America	Medal of Freedom		with Bronze Palm. (Only 987 issued with Bronze Palm during WWII)[29]
	French Republic	Médaille de la Résistance
	New Zealand	Badge In Gold	15 November 2006	Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association[25]

Biographies

In 2001, Australian author Peter FitzSimons wrote Nancy Wake, A Biography of Our Greatest War Heroine (ISBN 0 7322 6919 9), a bestselling comprehensive biography of Wake.^[18]
In 1956, Australian author Russell Braddon wrote Nancy Wake: The Story of a Very Brave Woman (ISBN 978 0 7524 5485 6)

 

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Charles Wyly, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founder of Michaels Stores, died from an automobile accident he was , 77.

Charles Wyly Jr. was an American entrepreneur and businessman, philanthropist, civic leader, and a major contributor to Republican causes and Dallas art projects died from an automobile accident he was , 77. This included $20 million to build a performing arts center in Dallas. In 2006, Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $1 billion. His younger brother, Samuel Wyly, is nearly equal in wealth; the two brothers were close with their business affairs, and were often referred to as the "Wyly brothers". Together the brothers had donated almost $2.5 million to more than 200 Republican candidates and committees at the federal level over the past two decades.

(October 13, 1933 – August 7, 2011)

Formative Years, Education, and Rise to the Top

Born during the Great Depression, Charles Wyly was a child when the collapsed economy forced the surrender of his family's cotton farm in Lake Providence, Louisiana. He and his younger brother went on to attend Louisiana Tech University in the 1950s, then went to work for IBM. Charles Wyly helped his brother, Samuel, run their startup computer software company, University Computing, and later founded and led several other companies including arts and crafts retail chain Michaels Stores Inc., which was sold in 2006. He also was a former member of the White House Advisory Council for Management Improvement. During their lifetime, the Wyly brothers together gave more than ninety million dollars to a wide range of charities.^[1]

Scandal and Controversy

In the summer of 2010, the Internal Revenue Service and Securities and Exchange Commission accused Wyly and his brother of using offshore havens to hide more than a half a billion dollars in profits over 13 years of insider stock trading and fraud. The brothers denied the claims and were fighting the allegations.

Death

On Sunday, August 7, 2011, Wyly, who maintained a home in the rural town of Woody Creek ^[2] in Roaring Fork Valley near Aspen, Colorado, was turning onto a highway near the local airport when his Porsche was hit by a sport utility vehicle according to the Colorado State Highway Patrol. Wyly died later at Aspen Valley Hospital.^[3] Charles Wyly was survived by his wife Caroline “Dee” Wyly, brother Sam, four children and seven grandchildren.^[4]

 

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Andrey Kapitsa, Russian geographer and explorer, discovered and named Lake Vostok died he was , 80.

Andrey Petrovich Kapitsa was a Russian geographer and Antarctic explorer, discoverer of Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica died he was , 80. He was a member of the Kapitsa family, a scientific dynasty in Russia.
Kapitsa was the first to suggest the existence of Lake Vostok in the region of Vostok Station in Antarctica, based on seismic soundings of the thickness of the Antarctic ice sheet. These measures were obtained during the Soviet Antarctic Expeditions, in four of which Kapitsa participated.^[4] The discovery of Lake Vostok was one of the last major geographic discoveries on Earth.^[1][3]

(Russian: Андре́й Петро́вич Капи́ца; 9 July 1931 – 2 August 2011)

Early life

Andrey Kapitsa's father was Nobel Prize-winning physicist Pyotr Kapitsa,^[5] and his maternal grandfather was mathematician and naval engineer Aleksey Krylov. Pyotr Kapitsa's sons Sergey and Andrey were born in Cambridge, United Kingdom, where their father was conducting research.^[1][5]
Andrey graduated from Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography, in 1953. He worked in the Laboratory of Experimental Geomorphology at the faculty since.^[1]

Antarctic research and discovery of Lake Vostok

In 1958 Kapitsa defended his Candidate of Science thesis "Morphology of East Antarctic Ice Sheet" («Морфология ледникового покрова Восточной Антарктиды»), and in 1968 he defended his Doctor of Science thesis "Subglacial relief of Antarctica" («Подлёдный рельеф Антарктиды»). Kapitsa was a participant in four Soviet Antarctic Expeditions between 1955 and 1964.^[1]
At the end of the 19th century Russian scientist Peter Kropotkin proposed the idea of the existence of fresh water under Antarctic ice sheets. He theorized that the tremendous pressure exerted by the cumulative mass of thousands of vertical meters of ice could increase the temperature at the lowest portions of the ice sheet to the point where the ice would melt. Kropotkin's theory was later developed by Russian glaciologist I.A Zotikov, who wrote his PhD thesis on this subject in 1967.^[6]
Andrey Kapitsa used seismic soundings in the region of Vostok Station made during the Soviet Antarctic Expeditions in 1959 and 1964 to measure the thickness of the ice sheet, discovering two spikes of reflection (one from bedrock and another from the sediment layer).^[6] Kapitsa was the first to suggest the existence of a subglacial lake in this region, which came to be known as Lake Vostok.^[1][4] The lake was named after Vostok Station, which in turn had been named after the Vostok, the 900-ton corvette of the discoverer of Antarctica, Russian explorer Admiral Fabian von Bellingshausen. The word восток means "east" in Russian, and the name of the station and the lake also reflects the fact that they are located in the East of Antarctica.
By 1993, the research of Russian and British scientists confirmed the existence of the lake,^[6] and subsequent research established its features. Other subglacial lakes were also discovered.^[8]

Later career

Kapitsa was the dean of his alma mater MSU Faculty of Geography in 1966–1970.^[1] In 1967–1969 he was the leader of the Soviet Academy of Sciences Expedition in the East Africa.^[4] He was elected into the ranks of the Academy in 1970 and was honored with a 1971 USSR State Prize and 1972 MSU’s Dmitry Anuchin Prize for the creation of the Atlas of Antarctica.^[1] He supported the theory of natural causes behind the Antarctic ozone hole^[9] as well as the theory of natural reasons behind global warming.^[4]
Kapitsa died in Moscow on 2 August 2011 at the age of 80.^[1] Half a year later, on 6 February 2012, after twenty years of drilling, a team of Russian scientists completed the longest ever ice core of 3,768 meters and pierced the Antarctic ice shield to reach the surface of Lake Vostok.^[10]

Family

• Father – Pyotr Kapitsa – a leading Soviet physicist and Nobel Prize in Physics winner for his low temperature research, discoverer of superfluidity.^[5]
• Mother – Anna Alekseevna Krylova, daughter of A.N. Krylov.^[5]
• Maternal grandfather – Aleksey Nikolaevich Krylov, naval engineer, applied mathematician and memoirist, developer of insubmersibility technique.^[11]
• Older brother – Sergei Kapitsa, physicist and demographer, host of the popular and long-running Russian scientific TV show, Evident, but Incredible.^[12]

 

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Adi Talmor, Israeli journalist and news presenter, died from an assisted suicide he was , 58

Adi Talmor was an Israeli journalist and news presenter died from an assisted suicide he was , 58.

( April 11, 1953 – August 5, 2011)

Biography

Talmor was born and raised in Ramat Gan to Jewish immigrant parents who were Holocaust survivors. During Talmor's childhood, his father changed the family's surname to the Hebrew name "Talmor".
When Talmor enlisted in the military in the early 1970s, he attempted to join the Army Radio unit but he was refused and instead he served as an Information security inspector in the Israeli Air Force. Talmor was initially rejected by the Army Radio unit due to a medical problem which affected his pronunciation. After Talmor underwent rhinoplasty surgery, his pronunciation improved significantly and as a result he was transferred to the Army Radio unit.
At 25 Talmor began working for the Army Radio as a civilian employee. At this point he also changed his first name to "Adi".
Between 1982 and 1992 Talmor worked as a news presenter for the Israeli Channel 1 news show "Erev Hadash" ("ערב חדש"), for which he became widely known in the Israeli public. (At the time, this was the only early-evening TV news show in the country). During that period of time Talmor also worked as a news anchor and news editor at Israeli Army Radio, a job which he held for about 33 years. In addition, during those years Talmor gave courses in announcing at the Geva Studios. As part of his work in the Israeli Army Radio Talmor hosted the radio shows "Bamatzav Hanochechi" ("במצב הנוכחי") and "Betzohorei Hayom" ("בצהרי היום").

Death

Talmor was a heavy smoker. At the age of 58 he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and the doctors determined that he only had a few months to live. As a result, on 5 August 2011 Talmor ended his life by assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Zürich, Switzerland. Following Talmor's request, on Friday, 5 August 2011, his body was cremated at noon and his ashes were scattered in a lake located nearby Zürich, Switzerland.^[1][2][3]
Prior to his death Talmor sent an email to his brother in which he directed him to his neighbor: there Talmor had left his will and farewell letters to his close friends and family members in a bag bearing the message "Thank you and goodbye." In a letter he left, he asked that those who honored his memory meet on Thursday, August 11, 2011 (a week after his death), next to his favorite spot at the Tel Aviv Promenade, "just before sunset" and conduct a short ceremony in his memory while several of his favorite songs played in the background.^[4]

 

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Aziz Shavershian, Australian bodybuilder and model, died from a heart attack he was , 22

Aziz Sergeyevich Shavershian  better known by his Internet handle Zyzz,^[3] was a Russian-born Australian bodybuilder, internet celebrity,^[9][10] personal trainer, model and a part-time stripper who established a cult following^[11][5][12] after posting multiple videos of himself on YouTube, starting in 2007. In late July 2011 he came to more general media attention when The Sydney Morning Herald published an article about the arrest of his older brother, Said Shavershian, for illegal possession of anabolic steroids.^[8] On 5 August 2011, whilst on holiday in Bangkok, Thailand, Aziz Shavershian suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 22.

(24 March 1989 – 5 August 2011)

Biography

Shavershian was born in Moscow, Russia,^[2] the youngest son of Maiane Iboian, who works in cardiology, and Sergei Shavershian.^[4] He has one older brother, Said Shavershian, who is also known by his screenname "Chestbrah".^[8][14]
In the early 1990s, Shavershian and his family moved to Australia.^[15] He was raised in Eastwood, New South Wales,^[4] and attended Marist College Eastwood Catholic secondary school, where he achieved Dux of the college.^[4][16][7] Prior to his death in August 2011, he was to graduate from the University of Western Sydney, with a degree in business and commerce.^[4][16][7]

Bodybuilding

Before becoming a bodybuilder, Shavershian had been described as a "skinny kid"^[11][9][17] and an ectomorph.^[18] Once he completed secondary school,^[2] Shavershian who was inspired by his bodybuilder brother, joined a local gym and began training. He began learning about nutrition and training and applying it to his pursuit of becoming a bodybuilder.^[18] His favourite professional bodybuilders included actor/politician Arnold Schwarzenegger and Frank Zane.^[18]
In an interview with bodybuilding website, Simplyshredded.com, Shavershian recalls that he originally wanted to become a bodybuilder to "impress girls". He says he would look at pictures of "shredded" bodybuilders and tell himself that he would one day be like them. Almost four years into training, Shavershian stated that:

I can safely say that my motivation to train goes far beyond that of merely impressing people, it is derived from the feeling of having set goals and achieving them and outdoing myself in the gym. I absolutely love it, the feeling of pushing out that last rep, and getting skin tearing pumps is something I don’t see myself without.^[18]

Prior to his death, Shavershian had his own protein label, "Protein of the Gods", released in June 2011;^[5] a clothing line.^[19] and on 17 May 2011, Shavershian published a 66-page book, entitled Zyzz's Bodybuilding Bible, based on a compilation of bodybuilding knowledge he acquired over the four years of training.^[9][20]

Alleged steroid abuse

On 14 July 2011, Shavershian's brother Said was arrested for possession of anabolic steroids,^[8] to which after Aziz's death he pleaded guilty.^[21][1] The Sydney Morning Herald covered the case, and included a photo of Aziz.^[8] Aziz objected to the use of his picture to illustrate what was essentially an article on the misuse of anabolic steroids.^[9]
When asked by The Daily Telegraph, Aziz denied ever using steroids, and claimed that his body shape was due to hard work in the gym and a strict diet.^[20] According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the company which employed Aziz as a stripper maintained that he was a lovely guy, "aside from the steroids".^[22] Shavershian often used phrases such as "riding bicycles" that according to The Daily Telegraph is "gym slang for using a cycle of steroids".^[14]

Death and aftermath

On 5 August 2011, Aziz Shavershian suffered a heart attack in a sauna, while on holiday in Bangkok, Thailand. He was taken to a hospital, where doctors were unable to revive him.^[9][13][4] His family and friends placed news of his death on Facebook, the social-networking site. His death was confirmed on Tuesday, 9 August, by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).^[5]
An autopsy revealed a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect.^[5] His family stated he had shown several minor symptoms in the few months leading up to August, including high blood pressure and occasional shortness of breath. He had a family history of heart problems.^[5]
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Shavershian's death was the sixth most searched death-related topic in Australia, during 2011.^[23][24][11] Prior to his death, Shavershian had posted a video of himself on a social-networking site, which would later come out 18th on Nine News' "Top News Videos of the Year" for 2011.^[25]
At the 2012 New Year's Day Field Day festival in Sydney, people dressed up as clones of Shavershian, as a homage.^[26]
Said Shavershian created a tribute video for his brother Aziz, entitled, "Zyzz - The legacy" which has been "trending the charts" on YouTube since as early as 29 March, 2012.^[27][28]
Shavershian's Facebook fan page had a following of 60,000 fans prior to his death. In April 2012, The Daily Telegraph took note that his fan page, which now has over 230,000 fans, still continues to attract a large following, nearly a year after his death.^[19]

Filmography

Year	Series	Role	Notes
2010	Underbelly: The Golden Mile	–	Extra[29]
2011	The National Road Trip	Zyzz	Multiple episodes. Currently in post-production.[30]

 

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Francesco Quinn, Italian-born American actor (Platoon, The Young and the Restless), son of Anthony Quinn, died from a heart attack he was , 48.

Francesco Daniele Quinn was an Italian-born actor died from a heart attack he was , 48. The third son of Oscar winner Anthony Quinn and Jolanda Addorlori (Anthony Quinn's second wife), Francesco is perhaps best known for his breakout role as Rhah in Oliver Stone’s Academy Award-winning Platoon (1986). His final role was the voice of the Autobot, Mirage in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.


(March 22, 1963 – August 5, 2011)

Early years

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

Career

Film

Quinn 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 sometimes played moody, dangerous characters, such as vampire Vlad Tepes in the 2003 direct to video alt-historical thriller Vlad, and wandering warrior Thane Le Mal in the short film The Gnostic. Like his father, Quinn 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 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.

Television

From 1999 to 2001, Francesco appeared on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless as Nina Webster's boyfriend, Tomas del Cerro, 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 second season of the Italian TV series Il commissario Manara.^[2]

Personal life

Quinn's marriage to Irish American Julie McCann, niece of Belfast snooker champion, Alex Higgins, ended in divorce. They resided in Sherman Oaks, California with their twin children Max and Michela.^[3]
Quinn died on August 5, 2011, in Malibu after experiencing what was believed to be a heart attack while running with his son, Max.^[4][5] He had two children, Michela, and Max.^[6] Quinn has ten surviving siblings, including Alex, Antonia, Catalina, Christina, Danny, Duncan, Lorenzo Quinn, Ryan, Sean, and Valentina Quinn. His eldest sibling Christopher drowned in 1941, aged two.

Athletic pursuits

Quinn pursued sports such as skiing, snowboarding, windsurfing, free diving, road cycling, mountain biking, and actively raced motocross and street bikes. Quinn also was an avid motorcycler, and was a spokesman for The Motorcycle Industry Council and Honda. A world traveler, he was fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian.
Quinn was a contestant on Ty Murray’s Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge on CMT, until he was sidelined with a broken rib after being stomped on by a Level 2 bull.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Platoon	Rhah
1988	Love Dream	Peter Janson
1989	Stradivari	Alessandro
	The Favorite	Adult Mahmud
	Indio	Daniel Morell
	Casablanca Express	Captain Franchetti
1990	The Old Man and the Sea	Santiago as a Young Man	TV movie
1991	A Star for Two	Young Gabriel Todd
	Murder Blues	John Reed
1992	Judgment	Jimmy Sollera
1993	Deadly Rivals	Bunny Wedman
1995	The Dark Dancer	Ramone
	Top Dog	Mark Curtains
	Red Shoe Diaries 5: Weekend Pass	Tommy	Video
1996	Cannes Man	Frank 'Rhino' Rhinoslavsky
1997	Deadly Ransom	Luis Mendes
	Rough Riders	Rafael Castillo	TV movie.
1998	Nowhere Land	Walfredo
	Placebo Effect	Zac
2000	The Translator	Jean-Paul Esselen
2001	Almost a Woman	Don Carlos
2003	Vlad	Vlad Țepeș
2006	Man vs. Monday	Juan Carlos
	Cut Off	Agent Jones
	Park	Smoldering Park Worker
2007	The Tonto Woman	Ruben Vega
	The Gnostic	Warrior
	Muertas	Carlos
	Afghan Knights	Amad
2008	Danny Fricke	Pablo Vicente
	A Gunfighter's Pledge	Sheriff	TV movie
	Broken Promise	Santos
	Hell Ride	Machete
2009	Four Single Fathers	Dom
2010	Conflict of Interest	Ron Garcia
	Rollers	Quinn	Completed
2011	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	Mirage/Dino (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Quo Vadis?	Marcus Vinicius	TV mini-series.
1987	Miami Vice	Francesco Cruz	"God's Work"
1992	Red Shoe Diaries		"Double or Nothing"
	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles	Francois	"Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal"
	In the Heat of the Night	Ramon Salazar	"Sanctuary"
1997	Soldier of Fortune, Inc.	Ramon Boharo	"La Mano Negra"
	JAG	Kabir Atef	6 episodes (1997–2002)
1998	Vengeance Unlimited	Col. Oscar Ponce	"Security"
2000	G vs E	Agent Shaw	"Ambulance Chaser"
	The Young and the Restless	Tomas del Cerro	31 episodes (2000–2001)
2002	Alias	Minos Sakkoulas	"The Confession"
	Crossing Jordan	The Lead Cuban	"For Harry, with Love & Squalor"
2003	24	Syed Ali	5 episodes.
	The Handler	Detective Lopez	"Hardcore"
2004	NCIS	Gunnery Sgt. Freddie Alvarez	"One Shot, One Kill"
	ER	Dr. Alfonso Ramirez	"Time of Death"
	CSI: Miami	Fidel	"Murder in a Flash"
2005	Into the West	Captain Salamanca	TV mini-series.
	Criminal Minds	Michael Russo	"Natural Born Killer"
2006	NCIS	Luis Romero	"Once a Hero"
2007	Tinseltown	Arturo
2008	The Shield	Beltran	2 episodes
2010 - 2011	The Glades	Eduardo Garcia	2 episodes

 

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