The grandson of famed Mexican character actor and comedian Pedro Gonzales Gonzales, Clifton Collins Jr. launched his own career as a film and television performer in the late 1980s. At first, Collins’ Latino heritage assured him steady work in stereotypical roles – thugs, police officers, troubled youth – in features like “Menace II Society” (1993) and “187” (1997). But his versatility and dedication to craft allowed him to spread his wings in a wider variety of characters, appearing in higher-profile picture like “Traffic” (2000), “Capote” (2005) and “Babel” (2006). An Emmy nominee for the