Since the start of his career in the mid-1980s, Oscar has studiously avoided typecasting. His dark good looks and Cuban heritage could easily have led to a career as a 'Latin lover' or as a menacing tough. But the actor's talents, his desire for privacy and his choice of quality material over crass commercialism have both helped and hindered his career. even in spite of an Oscar nomination for his supporting performance as Al Pacino's illegitimate nephew in "The Godfather, Part III" (1990).

Born to a well-to-do family in Cuba, Garcia claims to have vivid recollections of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Shortly after that historic event, he and his family immigrated to the USA, settling in Miami. His lawyer father was forced to start a new career, eventually building a multi-million dollar fragrance import company. Growing up, Garcia was more interested in sports until a bout of mononucleosis sidelined him during which he developed an interest in performing. After graduating from Miami's Florida International University, he headed to L.A. and passed time in the requisite job of waiting tables while auditioning and trying his hand as a stand-up comic.

By 1981, things began to look promising for the fledgling thespian. Garcia landed a role as a gang member in the premiere of NBC's acclaimed "Hill Street Blues" and he began to land other guest roles on series. His film debut was in the baseball drama "Blue Skies Again" (1983) and he first began to garner notice as a homicide detective in "The Mean Season" (1985). With his galvanizing turn as a drug dealer in Hal Ashby's "8 Million Ways to Die" (1986), Garcia began to be offered better roles. To avoid being stuck in roles as a heavy, he convinced director Brian De Palma to cast him as the earnest FBI sharpshooter in "The Untouchables" (1987) rather than as the gangster Frank Nitti, resulting in positive critical notices.

Garcia was an equally just, if wrong-headed, Board of Education official in "Stand and Deliver" (1988) and another morally upright cop in "Black Rain" (1989). After his Oscar nomination, the actor confounded critics by accepting the role of a hack newspaperman in the stylish thriller "Dead Again" (1991). "Jennifer 8" and "Hero" (both 1992) were critical and commercial failures and the roles of a cop with mixed feelings about romance and a media-savvy homeless veteran, respectively, offered little challenge to the actor's capabilities. Garcia registered strongly as the patient and loving spouse of an alcoholic (Meg Ryan in "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994). He has continued to essay a variety of roles, ranging from Mexican twins in "Steal Big, Steal Little" (1995) to a half-Irish district attorney in Sidney Lumet's "Night Falls on Manhattan" (1997) to the Spanish writer in "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" (also 1997), bit none of the films has proven a critical or popular success.

Garcia has branched out to other areas of the business as well. He produced and directed the 1993 documentary "Cachao: Like His Rhythm There Is No Other" focusing on the Cuban mambo artist. Additionally, Garcia produced the compilation recording "Master Sessions Volume I" of Cachao's music. For the soundtrack to "Steal Little, Steal Big", he wrote and performed several songs. With "Just the Ticket" (1999), he moved to feature producing (as well as starring). He also garnered terrific reviews and an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of the titular musician in the HBO biopic "For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story" (2000), a biopic he also produced and shared an Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Made for Television Movie category.

In 2002, Garcia produced and starred in the independent feature "The Man From Elysian Fields," Through his CineSon Productions, he has been developing his dream project, "The Lost City", a fact-based story of a Cuban political prisoner that he hopes to one day direct.