Who Plays Ariel Castro In 'Cleveland Abduction'? Raymond Cruz Is Very, Very Recognizable

June 11, 2024

There are always those actors that you’ve seen in pretty much everything, but you never know their names, until now. Raymond Cruz has 80 credits on his IMDB page and has literally been on most shows since the late '80s. Now, Raymond Cruz plays Ariel Castro in Cleveland Abduction and he’s pretty much tasked with being one of the most disturbing kidnappers in history. Good luck, Cruz. Lifetime is airing the dramatic movie about the real-life Ariel Castro Cleveland kidnappings of three girls on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.

Let’s go through the story line quickly. In 2002, Ariel Castro offered Michelle Knight (played by Taryn Manning in the movie) a ride and lured her into his home, taking his first of three victims. In April 2003, he lured Amanda Berry, a friend of his daughter's, to his place. One year after that, Gina DeJesus went missing, as well. Over the course of 10 years these three girls were kept in Castro’s house and often beaten and raped by him along with various other terrible things, which you will see in the movie. In 2013, Berry managed to escape and get to the police. The cops then discovered all of the girls and arrested Castro. This was in the news everywhere, and as you can imagine, Castro was sentenced to 1,000 years behind bars. He committed suicide in his jail cell in 2013.

We all recognize Cruz because he, of course, played Tuco Salamanca on Breaking Bad. Playing a villain isn't too farfetched for Cruz from his list of credits, but we’ve also seen him on the other side of the law.

Better Call Saul

Even though he didn’t make it through Breaking Bad, he was called upon to reprise his character Tuco Salamanca in the prequel, Better Call Saul. I don’t know if people are happy or sad that he is back, but he is. Deal with it.

The Closer

Probably Cruz’s most stable job over the last 10 years was his 105 episode role as Detective Julio Sanchez on The Closer, fighting crime alongside Kevin Bacon’s wife Kyra Sedgwick.

Major Crimes

He also reprised his role as Detective Julio Sanchez in The Closer spin-off Major Crimes. The show has been on since The Closer ended in 2012.

Training Day

Oh, you know just another role where Cruz is playing the bad guy. His name is Sniper in the movie. Go figure.

Alien: Resurrection

In 1997 Alien: Resurrection came out and Cruz played Vincent Distephano. He helped Sigourney Weaver fight off those scary aliens.

Guest Star Roles

So it seems that Cruz is either a cop/detective or a criminal in basically everything he’s ever been in. While we’ve seen his major roles, he’s also had shorter roles in shows like My Name is Earl, White Collar, CSI, Nip/Tuck, 24, NYPD Blue, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The X-Files and of course Walker, Texas Ranger.

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