This Saturday, August 28, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the actor, filmmaker and writer Fernando Fernan Gomez, a great contemporary exponent of Spanish arts, died on November 21, 2007 due to respiratory failure at the age of 86.
Born in Lima on August 28, 1921, at the age of three he moved to Madrid and, in this city, he began to study Philosophy and Letters. However, it did not take long for him to change books for tables in a timid beginnings in the Laura Pinillos Theater Company.
As an actor, he continued to grow playing comedies from Enrique Jardiel Poncela, before making his big screen debut in 1943 with the film Cristina de Guzman. This film would be followed by works with Jose Luis Garcia Berlanga O Juan Antonio Bardem, among other filmmakers, although until the 1970s he did not manage to establish himself seamlessly as a great performer, with risky roles in some of the most innovative films of the time: The spirit of the hive, The Legend of the Mayor of Zalamea, Ana and the Wolves, the anchorite, The wreck O Mom turns 100, among other.
Already in the eighties, he began forays as a director with two films that would earn him his first two goyas. Mambrú went to war crowned him best actor in 1985, while The journey to nowhere it was worth the award to the best director of 1986. As for films, Fernán Gómez stood out with his characters in Lead Soldiers, Beehive O Half of the sky, always under the orders of the best directors of the moment.
Despite the passing years, Fernán-Gómez did not suffer in the least and continued with enviable health working until the last years of his life. In the nineties, The stunned king, The tongue of butterflies O Everything about my mother accompanied in the actor’s filmography Belle Époque and Grandpa, which earned him the goya awards for the best supporting performance and leading role, respectively. His last award for Spanish cinema was received in 2001, for the screenplay of The Lazarillo de Tormes.
But Fernán Gómez was not only an actor, not even a director as well. He jumped from the strictly scenic and cinematographic field to that of letters, being one of the most relevant writers of Spanish dramaturgy. He received the Lope de Vega theater award for his best-known work, The bikes are for the summer, later adapted to the cinema.
As the culmination of this literary career, Fernando Fernán-Gómez became a member of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE) in 2000, which was a recognition of the literary guild for his creative ability and command of language. The many facets of the filmmaker and writer received their highest reward in 1995, the year in which the Prince of Asturias for the Arts picked up in Oviedo.
On the other hand, in his private life he married the singer María Dolores Pradera, from whom he would divorce years later after two children in common. Years later, he had a long-standing relationship with Emma Cohen.
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
