Raymond Cruz

Raymond Cruz (born September 10, 1964)^[1] is an American actor, best known for his starring role as Detective Julio Sanchez in the series The Closer and its spinoff Major Crimes ,^[2] as well as his recurring role as drug lord Tuco Salamanca in the crime drama Breaking Bad and its prequel series Better Call Saul .

Cruz, who is of Mexican descent, grew up in East Los Angeles, California, in a neighborhood that regularly saw gang activity, and had relatives in such street gangs as Maravilla and Barrio South Gate.^[3] In an interview with The Daily Beast , Cruz stated he witnessed someone shot in front of him when he was 12 years old, noting that "his brains came out the back of his head."^[3] For his portrayal of Tuco Salamanca, he was able to relate to his experiences witnessing people who were high on meth.^[3]

Cruz has said that becoming interested in American literature early in life helped him avoid joining such gangs himself. His favorite novel is Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird .^{[4] [5] [3]} Cruz attended 3 high schools after being expelled writing editorials on the newspaper that caused him to be late to class as well as being considered inappropriate.^[6] He attended East Los Angeles College.^[7]

Cruz's film roles include sniper Ding Chavez in Clear and Present Danger ,^[8] Hector in Out For Justice ,^[8] Tom Berenger's second-in-command Joey Six in The Substitute ,^[8] U.S. Marine Sergeant Rojas in The Rock ,^[8] as Jesus in From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money ,^[8] USM Private Vincent DiStephano in Alien Resurrection ,^[8] and Ramirez in Under Siege .^[8] He appeared as Chuey, a gang member from the Vatos Locos, in the gang film Blood In Blood Out .^[8]

In 2005, he played Chino in Havoc .^[8] He appeared in Gremlins 2: The New Batch ,^[8] credited as "The Messenger," and in Training Day as a gang member named Sniper.^[8] He played a Los Angeles firefighter in Collateral Damage .^[8] He had guest roles in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Siege of AR-558", The X-Files episode "El Mundo Gira", and the second season of 24 .^[8] He also made an appearance as the father of a murdered girl in CSI. He played Det Julio Sanchez for the entire seven season run of The Closer and continued in that role for all six seasons of the spin-off Major Crimes .^[8]

Cruz performed the well-known role of Tuco Salamanca, a sadistic and psychotic meth dealer in Breaking Bad in 2008 and 2009,^[8] a role he reprised in 2015-16 during the first two seasons of the Breaking Bad prequel spin-off, Better Call Saul .^[8]

He had a recurring role as Paco on My Name Is Earl , and as Alejandro Perez on Nip/Tuck .^[8]

Cruz is married to fellow actress Simi Mehta with whom he co-starred on The X-Files in the episode "El Mundo Gira".^[9]

• Raymond Cruz at IMDb

• 1964 births
• Male actors from Los Angeles
• American male television actors
• American male actors of Mexican descent
• American male film actors
• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century American male actors
• Hispanic and Latino American male actors
• Living people

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