(Accepting this award for Mr. Raul Julia, Mrs. Merel Julia)

MEREL JULIA: 44,43,42…Um Raul was surrounded by many wonderful people from The Burning Season. John Frankenheimer is a great director. The wonderful producer David Cutlem and all the producers at HBO: Robert Cooper, Michael Hughs, and Hutch Parker. His wonderful and incredible cast: Edward James Olmos, Sonja Braga, Bill Mastrosimone, Jose Perez, Kamala Lopez-Dawson, Nigel Havers, some wonderful friends there.

He was thrilled to play Chico Mendes, a man of conviction, a man who was committed to human beings. I think you see shinning through his own performance, his own commitment to human beings. That being his commitment that drove him through his adult career, which was the end of hunger and to the millions of people who die of hunger needlessly every year in and year out.

Raul had a wonderful, incredible, fantastic life. He didn’t live as long as many years as I would have wanted him to, but he lived them fully. He was joyous and gave a lot of joy to many people. He was about the only person I know who could sit in a restaurant or maybe even here and all of a sudden burst into song because it bubbled up from inside of him and that was natural for him. And with all of that he would say to me, “I only have the moment, I have to live the moment. And I’m most alive when I’m working, when I’m acting.” So I know that tonight he would be very honored to accept his award from you, his acting peers in the profession he loved so very, very much. And be in the company he was in with all the wonderful actors in his category.

So, from myself, from our children, from Raul’s friends and his family and all of his fans this means a great deal to us. Thank you very, very much. [applause]