José Pérez (born 1940) is a Puerto Rican actor. His acting career spanned fifty three years, comprising roles on Broadway, off-Broadway, on television and in films. He first caught the attention of audiences and reviewers as a child actor in the '50s and then had a second career as an adult beginning in the '60s through 2003. He is best known for his roles as the Attendant (God) in Steambath, Hector Fuentes in On the Rocks, Mike Torres in New York Undercover, and Juan in Short Eyes.
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Early years
Pérez was born in the town of Fajardo, on the eastern tip of Puerto Rico. His father, Arcadio Pérez, was a cigar maker who joined the Merchant Marine and moved his five children to New York City in 1948, when José was eight. He grew up in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, where he worked as a shoeshine boy and carried bags at the Greyhound bus terminal.
He began acting at the age of nine, after a counselor from the East Side Boys’ Club approached him outside Lindy's Broadway delicatessen (or, by another account, the restaurant was "Toffenetti"), where he was shining shoes and opening car-doors for tips, and asked him if he would like to be in a show, and if he could sing. Pérez sang a birthday tune and the man then asked his parents if Pérez could audition for a part in the Broadway production of South Pacific, because the boy who had been playing the part of Jerome had gotten too tall for the role. He got the part, which he performed regularly, first as an understudy and later as principal, for the next two years.
