Biography
Miguel Piñero (also credited as Miguel Pinero) was a Puerto Rican playwright, poet and actor. Born in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, he moved to New York as a child and became a leading figure in the Nuyorican literary movement. He co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Café with Miguel Algarín and others.
Piñero wrote the play Short Eyes while imprisoned; it received an Obie Award and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award after its 1974 off-Broadway production and was adapted into a 1977 film in which he appeared. He wrote episodes of the television series Baretta and Miami Vice, including the 1984 Miami Vice episode 'Smuggler's Blues'.
As an actor he appeared in films including The Jericho Mile (1979), Times Square (1980), Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981), Breathless (1983) and Deal of the Century (1983), and in episodes of Miami Vice, Kojak and The Equalizer. He died in New York City in 1988.
