Raul Julia: The Life, Death, and Final Film of a Legend

When Raul Julia walked onto the set of Street Fighter in the summer of 1994, he was carrying a stomach cancer diagnosis that he mostly kept to himself, yet he finished the movie anyway — and died of a stroke on October 24, 1994, at age 54, two months before it reached theaters. This is the story of that final year, the career that built his name, and the facts that still get tangled up in his death.

Born: March 9, 1940, San Juan, Puerto Rico · Died: October 24, 1994, Manhasset, New York · Cause of Death: Stroke while hospitalized for stomach cancer · Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) · Children: 2

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts

• Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 9, 1940 (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia))
• Died at age 54 on October 24, 1994 (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia))
• Street Fighter is the film usually listed as his final theatrical role (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia))

2What’s unclear

• The stroke’s exact onset: The New York Times reported October 16, other accounts give October 20 (The New York Times (news organization))
• The exact date of his cancer diagnosis was never widely reported (The New York Times (news organization))
• Whether smoking directly caused his cancer remains medically debatable (Wikipedia (community encyclopedia))

3Timeline signal

• Street Fighter was released in December 1994, about two months after his death (Looper (film journalism site))
• Down Came a Blackbird, his last leading television role, was filmed in Toronto in September–October 1994 (Wikipedia (community encyclopedia))

4What’s next

• Julia posthumously won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for The Burning Season, according to IMDb (IMDb (film database))

Six lines cover the essentials — and they show how much of Julia’s identity stayed rooted in New York theater even as Hollywood came calling late in his career.

Attribute	Detail
Full Name	Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay
Born	March 9, 1940, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Died	October 24, 1994 (aged 54), Manhasset, New York
Spouse	Merel Poloway (m. 1976)
Children	2
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)

Does Raul Julia have any children now?

Yes — Raul Julia had two sons, both from his marriage to Merel Poloway. The couple married in 1976 and stayed together until his death in 1994.

Raul Julia’s marriage to Merel Poloway

• Julia married Merel Poloway in 1976.
• The marriage lasted 18 years, ending with his death on October 24, 1994.
• The couple had two sons, Benjamin and Lucas.

That is nearly the whole public record of the marriage. Poloway was not part of the Hollywood social circuit, and after Julia’s death she stayed out of the public record.

His two sons: Benjamin and Lucas

• Benjamin Juliá is the older son.
• Lucas Juliá is the younger son.
• Both are alive and have stayed out of the public eye.

The family’s privacy is itself a fact about Julia’s life. On screen, he played the father of a monstrous household in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993) (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia)); in reality, he raised two sons who were never turned into press material.

What happened to his children after his death

After Julia died, Benjamin and Lucas returned to private life. Neither has built a public career in entertainment, and neither has used their father’s name to court attention.

The implication: the family Julia shielded most is the part of his life least documented online — a rarity for a star of his fame.

Did Raul Julia finish Street Fighter?

Yes — Julia completed his work on Street Fighter before he died, and the finished film reached theaters with his performance intact.

His role as M. Bison

• Julia played General M. Bison, the villain of the video-game adaptation (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia)).
• The role was a departure from the serious, dramatic parts that had defined his career.

For an actor built on Broadway classics, M. Bison was a strange and glorious change of register. Julia treated the part with total seriousness, and that commitment is why the performance outlived the movie.

Health condition during filming

By the time Street Fighter began production in summer 1994, Julia had been diagnosed with stomach cancer; he still reported to work and completed his scenes. The diagnosis came earlier that year, filming followed within months, and by October he was hospitalized. The result is a studio film whose central performance was delivered by a man in serious decline.

Posthumous release

• Street Fighter reached theaters in December 1994 (Looper (film journalism site)).
• The late release date made M. Bison the last major theatrical role audiences saw him play.

Because the movie arrived after his death, the film is often remembered as the one he was working on when he died. The calendar says otherwise — but the error is understandable.

The catch: Street Fighter is the right answer to a trivia question and the wrong answer to a biographical one. Julia finished it, but it was not the last time a camera recorded him.

What movie was Raul Julia filming when he died?

The popular answer is Street Fighter. It is also incomplete.

Street Fighter (1994)

• Street Fighter was Julia’s final theatrical film role — the last movie audiences saw him headline on the big screen.
• His scenes were completed while he was ill, and the movie was released after his death.
• The release in December 1994 came about two months after he died (Looper (film journalism site)).

So: Julia was not on a set when he died; he was hospitalized after a stroke. The question endures because his final release overshadowed everything around it.

His final performance

• Down Came a Blackbird, a television film, was shot in Toronto in September and October 1994 and is described in biographical records as Julia’s last leading television role.

The true shape of his final months looks like this: Street Fighter in the summer, a small-screen drama in the fall, then the stroke. The theatrical film has the fame; the television film has the last performance.

Circumstances of his hospitalization

• Julia was hospitalized for stomach cancer when he suffered the stroke that killed him.
• He died on October 24, 1994, at age 54.

The New York Times reported the stroke had occurred days earlier; other accounts placed it closer to his death. The exact onset date has never been firmly resolved.

The pattern: every obituary headline reached for Street Fighter, but the fuller answer — the television film shot afterward — shows an actor who worked until his body stopped him.

Was Raul Julia a heavy smoker?

Yes. Multiple accounts from Julia’s career describe him as a heavy smoker, and the habit became part of the medical picture in his final year.

Smoking habits and health impact

• Julia was a heavy smoker for most of his adult life.
• He was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1994, the same year he died.
• He kept working after the diagnosis, including the Street Fighter shoot.

Smoking is a recognized risk factor for cancers of the digestive system, but the medical record on Julia’s illness was never made public in detail. What is known is that he was diagnosed, kept working, and died within the same year.

Link to stomach cancer

Medical opinion varies on whether smoking was the direct cause of the cancer, and flattening a complex illness into a single habit would be a mistake. The timeline shows a body under strain: a longtime smoker with a gastrointestinal cancer, working through a major shoot.

Contrast with other lifestyle factors

• The Burning Season, a television film about Brazilian activist Chico Mendes, was released in 1994 — the same year Julia filmed Street Fighter and Down Came a Blackbird.
• His posthumous awards for The Burning Season came after his death.

Even in a year when he was gravely ill, Julia’s output did not stop. The contrast between his declining health and his relentless work is the defining tension of his final act.

How tall was Raul Julia?

Raul Julia’s height is commonly listed at 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), a detail that surfaces in every biography and trivia roundup. It is also one of the least interesting things about him.

Reported height of 5 ft 11 in

• Listed height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m).
• That placed him around the average for male film leads of his era.

Julia’s training was theatrical, not cinematic: he projected to the back of a Broadway house, which changed how he used his body. Height mattered far less than the physical authority he carried into every role.

Comparison to co-stars

The roles prove it: Valentín in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Archbishop Óscar Romero in Romero, Gomez Addams, M. Bison. Those characters share almost nothing physically — Julia made each one work through voice, posture, and commitment rather than measurement.

How height affected his roles

• On stage, Julia learned to command large spaces without amplification.
• On screen, directors used his stillness as much as his movement.

Fans who look up his height are usually trying to picture him as Gomez Addams, all velvet charm and sudden menace. The number gives them a frame; the performance gives them the rest.

The implication: height is the kind of detail trivia pages list and fans instantly forget — because Julia’s presence was never about inches.

Timeline signal

Eight moments, one arc: a Puerto Rican stage career, an American breakthrough, and a final year that crowds the timeline with work and loss.

Date	Milestone
1940	Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico
1960s–1970s	Moved to New York in 1964 and made his Off-Broadway debut in a Spanish-language production of Life Is a Dream (The New York Times (news organization))
1985	Starred in Kiss of the Spider Woman
1991	Played Gomez Addams in The Addams Family
1994 (early)	Diagnosed with stomach cancer
1994 (summer)	Filmed Street Fighter while ill
October 24, 1994	Died of a stroke at age 54
December 1994	Street Fighter released posthumously, dedicated to his memory (Looper (film journalism site))

The timeline’s weight is all at the end: diagnosis, filming, stroke, posthumous release. That compression is the defining fact of Julia’s final act.

Confirmed facts and what remains unclear

Part of the reason Julia’s death keeps resurfacing is that the record is mixed: solid on the essentials, fuzzy on the medical details. Here is the line between the two.

The division matters: the facts about Julia’s life are mostly solid, and the uncertainty clusters around a private medical history that his family chose not to air in public.

Remembering Raul Julia

Two voices frame how Julia is remembered: the newspaper that wrote his obituary, and the friend who carried his memory for decades.

“An actor who distinguished himself in classics on Broadway and off.”

The New York Times obituary, 1994

“One of the great loves of my life.”

Anjelica Huston, in her memoir

Huston’s phrasing is careful: she called Julia charming and named him as one of the great loves of her life, while both she and Julia denied that the relationship was romantic. Meryl Streep, who worked with Julia on The Plague, also praised his talent and professionalism.

Street Fighter gave Raul Julia an afterlife he never planned: millions who never saw him on Broadway know his voice and face from a video-game movie he made while dying. His willingness to finish that role — and to keep filming afterward — is the clearest evidence of the commitment his colleagues described. For anyone discovering Julia’s films today, the route is clear: start with Kiss of the Spider Woman to see the artist, then watch Street Fighter to see the man who would not stop working.

Frequently asked questions

What was Raul Julia’s cause of death?

Julia died on October 24, 1994, from complications stemming from a stroke, according to The New York Times obituary. He had been hospitalized with stomach cancer at the time.

How many children did Raul Julia have?

Two sons, Benjamin and Lucas, from his marriage to Merel Poloway.

Who was Raul Julia married to?

Merel Poloway. They married in 1976 and stayed together until his death in 1994.

Was Street Fighter completed before Raul Julia died?

Yes. He completed his work on the film, which was released in December 1994, about two months after he died.

What was Raul Julia’s height?

Raul Julia was 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) tall.

Did Raul Julia’s smoking habit affect his health?

He was a heavy smoker and was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1994, the year he died. Medical opinion varies on whether smoking directly caused the cancer.

What is Raul Julia’s most famous role?

For most audiences, it is Gomez Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993). For theater critics, it is often his stage work or Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985).

Related reading: For another look at how Hollywood handles a star’s death and family legacy, see Peter Sellers: Cause of Death, Inheritance & Relationships and Betty White: Life, Relationships, and Lasting Legacy.