Edward James Popular Books
Edward James Biography & Facts
Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo in Miami Vice (1984–1989), American Me (1992) (which he also directed), William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009), Detective Gaff in Blade Runner (1982) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and the voice of Mito in the 2005 English dub of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. For his performance as high school math teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver (1988), he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. For his work in Miami Vice, Olmos won the 1985 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. For his performance in Stand and Deliver, Olmos was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He is also known for his roles as folk hero Gregorio Cortez in The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, patriarch Abraham Quintanilla in the film Selena, Felipe Reyes in Mayans M.C., narrator El Pachuco in both the stage and film versions of Zoot Suit, and the voice of Chicharrón in Coco. Over the course of his career, Olmos has been a pioneer for more diversified roles and images of Latinos in U.S. media. His notable direction, production, and starring roles for films, made-for-TV movies, and TV shows include Wolfen, Triumph of the Spirit, Talent for the Game, American Me, The Burning Season, My Family/Mi Familia, Caught, 12 Angry Men, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, Walkout, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, American Family, and Dexter. Early life Olmos was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California, the son of Eleanor (née Huizar) and Pedro Olmos, who was a welder and mail carrier. His father was a Mexican immigrant who moved to California in 1945 and his mother was an American of Mexican descent. His parents divorced when he was seven years old, and he was primarily raised by his great-grandparents as his parents worked. He grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player, and at age 13 joined the Los Angeles Dodgers' farm system, as a catcher. He left baseball at age 15 to join a rock and roll band, which caused a rift with his father, who was hurt by the decision. He graduated from Montebello High School in 1964. While at Montebello High School, he lost a race for Student Body President to future California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres. In his teen years, he was the lead singer for a band he named Pacific Ocean, so called because it was to be "the biggest thing on the West Coast". For several years, Pacific Ocean performed at various clubs in and around Los Angeles, and released their only record, Purgatory, in 1968. At the same time, he attended classes at East Los Angeles College, including courses in acting. Career Theater In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Olmos branched out from music into acting, appearing in many small productions, until his big break portraying the narrator, called "El Pachuco", in the play Zoot Suit, which dramatized the World War II-era rioting in California brought about by the tensions between Mexican-Americans and local police, called the Zoot Suit riots. The play moved to Broadway, and Olmos earned a Tony Award nomination. He subsequently took the role to the filmed version in 1981, and appeared in many other films including Wolfen, Blade Runner and The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez. Olmos has been a frequent guest narrator at Disney's Candlelight Processional at Walt Disney World, narrating the nativity story. Film and television In 1980, Olmos was cast in the post-apocalyptic science fiction film Virus (復活の日 Fukkatsu no Hi), directed by Kinji Fukasaku and based on a novel written by Sakyo Komatsu. His role required him to play a piano while singing a Spanish ballad during the later part of the film. Although not a box office success, Virus was notable for being the most expensive Japanese film made at the time. From 1984 to 1989, he starred in his biggest role up to that date as the taciturn police Lieutenant Martin Castillo in the television series Miami Vice, opposite Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, for which he was awarded a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 1985. At this time, Olmos also starred in a short training video for the United States Postal Service entitled Was it Worth It?, a video about theft in the workplace. He was contacted about playing the captain of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) on Star Trek: The Next Generation when it was in pre-production in 1986, but declined. Returning to film, Olmos became the first American-born Hispanic to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, in Stand and Deliver, for his portrayal of real-life math teacher Jaime Escalante. He directed and starred in the controversial crime film American Me in 1992, and also starred in My Family/Mi Familia, a multi-generational story of a Chicano family. He had a slight appearance in the video of the American rock band Toto, "I Will Remember" (1995), where he can be seen with actor Miguel Ferrer. In 1997, he starred alongside Jennifer Lopez in the film Selena. Olmos played Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo in the 2001 film In the Time of the Butterflies. He had a recurring role as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roberto Mendoza in the NBC drama The West Wing. From 2002 to 2004, he starred as a recently widowed father of a Hispanic family in the PBS drama American Family: Journey of Dreams. From 2003 to 2009, he starred as Commander William Adama in the Sci-Fi Channel's reimagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries, and in the television series that followed. He directed four episodes of the show, "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" (1.9), "Taking a Break from All Your Worries" (3.13), "Escape Velocity" (4.4), and "Islanded in a Stream of Stars" (4.18). He directed a television film based upon the show, The Plan. Regarding his work on the show, he told CraveOnline, "I'm very grateful for the work that I've been able to do in my life, but I can honestly tell you, this is the best usage of television I've ever been a part of to date." In 2006, he co-produced, directed, and played the bit part of Julian Nava in the HBO film about the 1968 Chicano Blowouts, Walkout. He appeared in Snoop Dogg's music video "Vato". In the series finale of the ABC sitcom George Lopez, titled "George Decides to Sta-Local Where It's Familia"; he guest-starred as the plant's new multi-millionaire owner. He has been a spokesperson for Farmers Insurance Group, starring in their Spanish language commercials. Olmos joined the cast of the television series Dexter for its sixth season, as a "brilliant, charismatic professor of religious studies". Olmos starred in the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Robert Gonzales, the leader of a rival faction of S.H.I.E.L.D., for five episodes. Music In 1967, Olmos - as Eddie J.... Discover the Edward James popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Edward James books.
Best Seller Edward James Books of 2024
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Positively Fifth Street
James McManusRough sex, black magic, murder, and the scienceand erosof gambling meet in the ultimate book about Las VegasJames McManus was sent to Las Vegas by Harper's to cover the World Seri...
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Father of the Bride
Edward StreeterThe New York Times bestselling classic tale about modern marriage and the basis for the popular films is now back in print!Poor Mr. Banks! His jacket is too tight, he can’t get a c...
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The Complete Dangerous Davies
Leslie ThomasAs plainclothes men go, Dangerous Davies looks like a nonstarter. The small fry of petty larceny and minor disturbances in the backwaters of northwest London are his daily round. H...
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A Brief Guide to Smart Thinking
James M. RussellEach book is summarised to convey a brief idea of what each one has to offer the interested reader, while a 'Speed Read' for each book delivers a quick sense of what each book is l...
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The Real Special Relationship
Michael Smith, Michael Hayden & Sir John ScarlettGripping, deeply researched, and authoritative, the history of one of the closest intelligence and security relationships in the world The Special Relationship between the United S...
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Crash Dive
Larry BondEdited by bestselling author Larry Bond, Crash Dive collects the best nonfiction writing on submarines, the nearsilent killers of the deep and their crews. They are the ultimate u...
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The Princes in the Tower
Philippa LangleyIn 1483, Edward V (age twelve) and his brother Richard, Duke of York (age nine), disappeared from the Tower of London. History has judged they were murdered on the orders of Richar...
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Coup in Dallas
H. P. Albarelli & Dick RussellThe CIA, Dallas, and the Hard Details of the JFK AssassinationCoup in Dallas leaves speculation and theory aside to give the hard details of who killed President John F. Kennedy an...
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7 best short stories by Stewart Edward White
Stewart Edward White & August NemoStewart Edward White'sbooks were popular at a time when America was losing its vanishing wilderness. He was a keen observer of the beauties of nature and human nature, yet coul...
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Handing One Another Along
Robert Coles, Trevor Hall & Vicki KennedyIn this book on shaping a meaningful and ethical life, the renowned, Pulitzer Prize–winning author explores how character, courage, and human and moral understanding can be fostere...
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Stanton
Walter StahrNew York Times bestselling author Walter Stahr tells the story of Edwin Stanton, who served as Secretary of War in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet. “This exhaustively researched, wellpac...
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The Spy Who Was Left Behind
Michael PullaraThe shocking true story of international intrigue “a highly detailed, engrossing work” (Kirkus Reviews)involving the 1993 murder of CIA officer Freddie Woodruff by KGB agents and t...
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American Notes
Charles Dickens'Like Shakespeare, Dickens was able to embrace a whole world' John MortimerWhen Charles Dickens set out for America in 1842, he was the most famous man of his day to make the journ...
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The Quartermaster
Robert O'Harrow“The lively story of the Civil War’s most unlikelyand most uncelebratedgenius” (The Wall Street Journal)General Montgomery C. Meigs, who built the Union Army and was judged by Abra...
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The Most Dammed Country in the World
Dai QingIn twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.The courageous, unflinching speeches and writings collected in The Most Dammed Country in the W...
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The Book of Master Mo
Mo Zi & Ian JohnstonA key work of ancient Chinese philosophy is brought back to life in Ian Johnston's compelling and definitive translation, new to Penguin Classics. Very little is known about Master...
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The Last Investigation
Gaeton Fonzi, Marie Fonzi & Dick RussellA shocking exposé looking into the failure of our government to investigate the assassination of a president.Now featuring a foreword from New York Times bestselling author Dick Ru...
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Body of Secrets
James BamfordThe National Security Agency is the world’s most powerful, most farreaching espionage. Now with a new afterword describing the security lapses that preceded the attacks of Sept...
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Spycraft
Robert B. Wallace, H. Keith Melton & Henry R. SchlesingerAn unprecedented history of the CIA's secret and amazing gadgetry behind the art of espionageIn this look at the CIA’s most secretive operations and the devices that made them poss...
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American Capitalism
Louis Hyman & Edward E. BaptistFrom Cornell University Professors Louis Hyman and Edward E. Baptist, a collection of the most relevant readings on the history of capitalism in America, created to accompany their...
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The Diary of Lady Murasaki
Murasaki ShikibuThe Diary recorded by Lady Murasaki (c. 973c. 1020), author of The Tale of Genji, is an intimate picture of her life as tutor and companion to the young Empress Shoshi. Told in a s...
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The Colour Out of Space
H. P. Lovecraft'It was a monstrous constellation of unnatural light, like a glutted swarm of corpsefed fireflies dancing hellish sarabands over an accursed marsh (...)'H.P. Lovecraft was perhaps ...
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Hell Riders
Terry BrightonOn the 150th anniversary of the world's most famous cavalry charge comes a revisionist retelling of the battle based on firsthand accounts from the soldiers who fought thereIn Octo...
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Wrestling With His Angel
Sidney BlumenthalThe “magisterial” (The New York Times Book Review) second volume of Sidney Blumenthal’s acclaimed, landmark biography, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, reveals the future pre...
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Lay This Body Down
Charles Fergus"Richly textured historical fiction with the urgency of a mystery novel. Fergus knows certain things, deep in the bone: horses, hunting, the folkways of rural places, and he weaves...
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The Ship of Dreams
Gareth RussellThis original and “meticulously researched retelling of history’s most infamous voyage” (Denise Kiernan, New York Times bestselling author) uses the sinking of the Titanic as a pri...
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Coronation
Roy StrongThe definitive history of coronations and the Royal Family, from acclaimed writer Roy Strong.’What is the finest sight in the world? A Coronation.What do people talk most about? A ...
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The Myth of the Lost Cause
Edward H. BonekemperHistory isn't always written by the winners...Twentyfirstcentury controversies over Confederate monuments attest to the enduring significance of our nineteenthcentury Civil War. As...
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Crazy Rich
Jerry OppenheimerFrom the founders of the international healthcare behemoth Johnson & Johnson in the late 1800s to the contemporary Johnsons of today, such as billionaire New York Jets owner Ro...
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Son of a Korean War Corpsman
James Edward BonetWar. One word, several consequences. In a country where freedom reigns, sacrifices must be made. Sargent Dimas Bonet took his duties to this country seriously. He was destined to f...
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Ike and McCarthy
David A. NicholsThe full, littleknown story of how President Dwight Eisenhower masterminded the downfall of the antiCommunist demagogue Senator Joseph McCarthy is “a gripping, detailed account of ...
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Lincoln and the Power of the Press
Harold Holzer“Lincoln believed that ‘with public sentiment nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.’ Harold Holzer makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Lincoln’s l...
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Humanity
Edward James BowmanSet on the planet of Manticore in the 50th century, Lord Koris Young and Lord Lysander Jordanis vie for the chairman role in the soonapproaching election while also trying to keep ...
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Space Galaxy 3000
James Edward BonetOnce daring astronauts dark light beyond their flash of Galaxy sight new planets had to be human. After the discovery of Mars, the planet would remain isolated from further GSSA en...
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Richard III
William ShakespeareThe authoritative edition of Richard III from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.In Richard III, Shakes...
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How to Catch a Russian Spy
Naveed Jamali & Ellis HenicanWith an epilogue on recent Russian spying, a “pageturner of a memoir” (Publishers Weekly) about an American civilian with a dream, who worked as a double agent with the FBI in the ...
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Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies
Elizabeth WinklerAn “extraordinarily brilliant” and “pleasurably naughty” (André Aciman) investigation into the Shakespeare authorship question, exploring how doubting that William Shakespeare wrot...
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Open Secret
Stella Rimington'The story of MI5's transformation is fascinating. So, too is Rimington's account of her rise in what was very definitely a man's world.' GuardianThe eyeopening memoir from the fi...
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Selected Poems of Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton & Irene Goldman-PriceEdith Wharton, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with her novel The Age of Innocence, was also a brilliant poet. This revealing collection of 134 poems brings t...