Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay (better known as Raúl Juliá) (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994) was a Golden Globe award winning actor from Puerto Rico who lived and worked for many years in the United States. His career spanned stage and screen, and included dramatic, comic, and musical roles in theater, film and television, challenging audiences with his complex, often enthralling performances. Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay was born at the Floral Park subsection of San Juan on March 9, 1940. He was the oldest of four brothers and sisters; his brother Carlos Rafael died in an automobile accident in 1960. His mother was a mezzo-soprano who abandoned a potential career as a singer when she married Juliá's father. Some relatives on his father's side were part-time musicians.

Raúl's father was the founder of "La Cueva del Chicken Inn", a restaurant in San Juan which he used as a gate to introduce pizza and fried chicken into the Puerto Rican gastronomy, during the mid-1950s. It was modeled after a similar restaurant in Madrid, Spain, called "La Cueva de Luis Candelas", whose fried chicken 'a la canasta' (deep-fried) was legendary. On the other hand, he hired an Italian cook in New York City who could prepare authentic Italian pizza for Puerto Rican palates. Raúl's sister María Eugenia claims that their father was, in a way, the first fast food mogul Puerto Rico ever had, since the relatively simple food would ensure prompt service at the restaurant. He founded the restaurant at the very house where Raúl and his brother Rafael were born, the brothers and sisters literally grew up with the family business, and the property is still owned by the Juliá family.

Throughout his youth, the success of his father's business ensured excellent schooling for young Raúl and his brothers and sisters. He finished his high school studies at the local Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola and had a strict Jesuit upbringing; future Puerto Rican pro-independence leader Rubén Berríos was a classmate and close friend. After spending a year at Fordham University, and as an indirect consequence of his brother's death, he returned to Puerto Rico and attended the University of Puerto Rico where he was a member of Phi Sigma Alpha and earned a Bachelor in Arts degree. Juliá discovered acting early in his academic career, beginning with a role in first grade. "From then on, that was it," he told Cigar Aficionado magazine in 1993. "I knew there was something special about the theater for me something beyond the regular reality, something that I could get into and transcend and become something other than myself." He was deeply involved in drama and art clubs in his high school years, and even played the role of Rodrigo in Othello at a local drama production. For a while he was also a game show host and teen program host on Puerto Rican television.

Upon graduation from college, Juliá was faced with a difficult choice between his parents' wishes and his own. They wanted him to remain in Puerto Rico and continue on to law school. They also pointed out that his uncles were the owners of a mental hospital, and that he could have guaranteed success as a doctor. He, however, wanted to pursue an acting career. Finally, like so many aspiring actors, he left for New York City in 1964. He asked his parents only to finance the tuition fees of any acting classes he might take, while he would support himself through various odd jobs, including selling fountain pens and serving as a telemarketer. Juliá began studying drama with Wynn Handman. He soon found work in off-Broadway theater and at open air performances in New York's Central Park.

Juliá met his wife, Merel Poloway, when they were both touring for a show called "Llya, Darling." They were married in 1976. In 1983, they had their first son Raul Sigmund Julia. In 1987, they had their second son, Benjamin Rafael Julia.

Raúl Juliá was a lifelong supporter of Puerto Rico's independence movement. He had to convince his agent to allow him to do an advertising campaign on behalf of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, out of his love of the country.

Juliá's favorite actor was Laurence Olivier; he was also a fan of William Shakespeare, Federico García Lorca, and particularly of Don Quixote, whom he portrayed onstage in the 1992 revival of Man of La Mancha. He was also a fan of opera, and while not classically trained, he would sing operatic arias when asked to.

He was a member of Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity.

Juliá was also very much involved in "The Hunger Project", which attempted to minimize world hunger through philanthropic galas; he had a personal goal of raising USD$1 million for the organization. He gave numerous anonymous donations to various organizations in Asia, Africa and Latin America, including seed money for erecting a Roman Catholic church in Mexico.