Foggy Melson | Steven Bauer and Menahem Golan Interview on "The Versace Murder" (September 20, 1997) @foggymelson | Uploaded September 2023 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
The Versace Murder is a 1998 film written and directed by Menahem Golan and starring Franco Nero and Steven Bauer.
Premise
Spree killer Andrew Cunanan (Shane Perdue) leaves a trail of murder victims as he travels from San Francisco to Miami, finally killing world-famous fashion designer Gianni Versace (Franco Nero). The film recounts Cunanan's life before and after the murder, including details on his four other victims and his efforts to evade a nationwide manhunt that would end in his suicide.
Principal cast
Franco Nero as Gianni Versace
Steven Bauer as FBI Agent John Jacoby
Shane Perdue as Andrew Cunanan
Matt Servitto as David Madson
Oscar Torre as Antonio D'Amico
Mario Ortiz as Fernando Carreira
David Anthony Pizzuto as Chief William Roberts
Dania Deville as Donatella Versace
Renny Roker as Barnie Rogers
Steven Bauer (born Esteban Ernesto Echevarría Samson; December 2, 1956) is an American actor.
Bauer began his career on PBS, portraying Joe Peña, the son of Cuban immigrants on ¿Qué Pasa, USA? (1977–1979) and is perhaps most famous for his role as the Cuban drug lord Manolo "Manny" Ribera in the 1983 crime drama Scarface, in which he starred alongside Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. He also played the drug cartel leader Eladio Vuente in Breaking Bad (2011) and in Better Call Saul (2017–2022) and the retired Mossad agent Avi Rudin in Ray Donovan (2013–2017).[1]
Early life and education
Bauer was born Esteban Ernesto Echevarría Samson, on December 2, 1956, in Havana, Cuba, the son of Lillian Samson Agostini, a schoolteacher, and Esteban Echevarría, a commercial pilot who worked for Cubana Airlines.[1][2][3][4] Bauer's maternal grandfather, whose family names were Samson and Bauer, was Jewish, and immigrated to Cuba from Germany, a refugee looking to escape the devastating effects World War II and Adolf Hitler had on his safety and home country.[5][6][7]
Bauer's family emigrated from Cuba to the United States on Independence Day, 1960, when he was three years old, shortly after the end of the Cuban Revolution, settling in Miami, Florida.[1] Once in the United States, he began using the name Steven, an English form of his given name, Esteban. He graduated from Miami Coral Park High School in 1974 and went on to study acting at Miami Dade Community College and then at the University of Miami, where he befriended Ray Liotta.[8][1]
Bauer's first substantial role was in the PBS bilingual sitcom ¿Qué Pasa, USA?, playing the teenage son of a Cuban exile family in Miami, from 1977 to 1979.[1] He also appeared in the 1980 TV miniseries From Here to Eternity. He was credited in these and a few other early projects as Rocky Echevarría. In 1981, Bauer starred in the television movie She's in the Army Now, where he met his first wife, actress Melanie Griffith. They both moved to New York City and stayed at Ray Liotta's apartment, while Liotta moved to Los Angeles and stayed at theirs. Both Bauer and Griffith studied under acting teacher Stella Adler, and he appeared in several off-Broadway productions. During this time he adopted the stage name "Steven Bauer".
Bauer was given the role of Manny Ribera (the part played by George Raft in the original 1932 version) in the 1983 movie Scarface,[1] even though (like Raft) he was a relatively unknown actor at the time. The producers of Scarface were convinced that he was right for the role based on his strong audition, as well as his authentic Cuban background. His performance drew a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1986 he had two other important roles. The first was as Det. Frank Sigliano in the Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines cop comedy Running Scared. The second was as an Israeli soldier named Avner in the Canadian CTV television movie Sword of Gideon, which tells the story of Mossad agents hunting down terrorists in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich massacre. The Sword of Gideon script was the basis for Steven Spielberg's later film Munich, which follows the same storyline and borrows heavily from the Sword of Gideon story and script. In 1990 Bauer played the role of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in the television miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story alongside Benicio Del Toro and Craig T. Nelson. That same year, Bauer took over the series lead of the television show Wiseguy from Ken Wahl for the fourth and final season, playing U.S. Attorney Michael Santana after Wahl's character disappears.
Menahem Golan (Hebrew: מנחם גולן; May 31, 1929 – August 8, 2014, originally Menachem Globus) was an Israeli film producer, screenwriter, and director. He was best known for co-owning The Cannon Group with his cousin Yoram Globus. Cannon specialized in producing low-to-mid-budget American films, primarily genre films, during the 1980s after Golan and Globus had achieved significant filmmaking success in their native Israel during the 1970s.[2]
The Versace Murder is a 1998 film written and directed by Menahem Golan and starring Franco Nero and Steven Bauer.
Premise
Spree killer Andrew Cunanan (Shane Perdue) leaves a trail of murder victims as he travels from San Francisco to Miami, finally killing world-famous fashion designer Gianni Versace (Franco Nero). The film recounts Cunanan's life before and after the murder, including details on his four other victims and his efforts to evade a nationwide manhunt that would end in his suicide.
Principal cast
Franco Nero as Gianni Versace
Steven Bauer as FBI Agent John Jacoby
Shane Perdue as Andrew Cunanan
Matt Servitto as David Madson
Oscar Torre as Antonio D'Amico
Mario Ortiz as Fernando Carreira
David Anthony Pizzuto as Chief William Roberts
Dania Deville as Donatella Versace
Renny Roker as Barnie Rogers
Steven Bauer (born Esteban Ernesto Echevarría Samson; December 2, 1956) is an American actor.
Bauer began his career on PBS, portraying Joe Peña, the son of Cuban immigrants on ¿Qué Pasa, USA? (1977–1979) and is perhaps most famous for his role as the Cuban drug lord Manolo "Manny" Ribera in the 1983 crime drama Scarface, in which he starred alongside Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. He also played the drug cartel leader Eladio Vuente in Breaking Bad (2011) and in Better Call Saul (2017–2022) and the retired Mossad agent Avi Rudin in Ray Donovan (2013–2017).[1]
Early life and education
Bauer was born Esteban Ernesto Echevarría Samson, on December 2, 1956, in Havana, Cuba, the son of Lillian Samson Agostini, a schoolteacher, and Esteban Echevarría, a commercial pilot who worked for Cubana Airlines.[1][2][3][4] Bauer's maternal grandfather, whose family names were Samson and Bauer, was Jewish, and immigrated to Cuba from Germany, a refugee looking to escape the devastating effects World War II and Adolf Hitler had on his safety and home country.[5][6][7]
Bauer's family emigrated from Cuba to the United States on Independence Day, 1960, when he was three years old, shortly after the end of the Cuban Revolution, settling in Miami, Florida.[1] Once in the United States, he began using the name Steven, an English form of his given name, Esteban. He graduated from Miami Coral Park High School in 1974 and went on to study acting at Miami Dade Community College and then at the University of Miami, where he befriended Ray Liotta.[8][1]
Bauer's first substantial role was in the PBS bilingual sitcom ¿Qué Pasa, USA?, playing the teenage son of a Cuban exile family in Miami, from 1977 to 1979.[1] He also appeared in the 1980 TV miniseries From Here to Eternity. He was credited in these and a few other early projects as Rocky Echevarría. In 1981, Bauer starred in the television movie She's in the Army Now, where he met his first wife, actress Melanie Griffith. They both moved to New York City and stayed at Ray Liotta's apartment, while Liotta moved to Los Angeles and stayed at theirs. Both Bauer and Griffith studied under acting teacher Stella Adler, and he appeared in several off-Broadway productions. During this time he adopted the stage name "Steven Bauer".
Bauer was given the role of Manny Ribera (the part played by George Raft in the original 1932 version) in the 1983 movie Scarface,[1] even though (like Raft) he was a relatively unknown actor at the time. The producers of Scarface were convinced that he was right for the role based on his strong audition, as well as his authentic Cuban background. His performance drew a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1986 he had two other important roles. The first was as Det. Frank Sigliano in the Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines cop comedy Running Scared. The second was as an Israeli soldier named Avner in the Canadian CTV television movie Sword of Gideon, which tells the story of Mossad agents hunting down terrorists in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich massacre. The Sword of Gideon script was the basis for Steven Spielberg's later film Munich, which follows the same storyline and borrows heavily from the Sword of Gideon story and script. In 1990 Bauer played the role of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in the television miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story alongside Benicio Del Toro and Craig T. Nelson. That same year, Bauer took over the series lead of the television show Wiseguy from Ken Wahl for the fourth and final season, playing U.S. Attorney Michael Santana after Wahl's character disappears.
Menahem Golan (Hebrew: מנחם גולן; May 31, 1929 – August 8, 2014, originally Menachem Globus) was an Israeli film producer, screenwriter, and director. He was best known for co-owning The Cannon Group with his cousin Yoram Globus. Cannon specialized in producing low-to-mid-budget American films, primarily genre films, during the 1980s after Golan and Globus had achieved significant filmmaking success in their native Israel during the 1970s.[2]
