The actress Marisa Paredes died this morning at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation Hospital in Madrid at the age of 78, as confirmed this Tuesday by the Film Academy. The interpreter went to the hospital at night because she was feeling unwell, accompanied by her partner Chema Prado, former director of the National Film Library, and died hours later. It is located in the San Isidro funeral home in Madrid. Paredes, National Cinematography Award in 1996, Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts in 2007 and Goya of Honor in 2018, among many other awards, was one of the most distinguished representatives of Spanish acting during a six-decade career in the who worked with directors such as Pedro Almódovar and Agustí de Villaronga.
The goalkeeper’s daughter, as she defined herself, began working at the age of 14 saying a phrase that is also in The Godfather: “They have killed compadre Turino…”. There the scriptwriter and director, Víctor Vadorrey, saw him, who sent him to meet Conchita Montes, who at that time was rehearsing at the Teatro de la Comedia. From that moment on, he did not stop working. “They have always given me special characters,” he said in an interview at ICON. “I have been lucky that, since I don’t look Spanish, I’m not Concha Velasco or these great ones, when television was cultured and they showed theater, I did all the dramas of Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Ibsen. It was the Russian soul. The great drama. “I have that sling thing.”
Paredes’ name will forever be tied to that of Almodóvar, for his legendary collaboration in the classics between darkness (1983), Far Heels (1991), The flower of my secret (1995), All about my mother y The skin I live in (2011). But it is also an essential presence in the theater, immortalized in countless works broadcast in the Study 1 of RTVE, as well as in the filmography of many of the greatest Spanish-speaking filmmakers, by Agustí Villaronga (Behind the glass, 1986) a Arturo Ripstein (Deep crimson, 1986), passing through Guillermo del Toro (The devil’s backbone, 2001). He also worked with Lluís Pasqual —“the one who trusted me the most,” he said.
With that same director it was planned to premiere in 2025 Full of future. It was a monologue by Paredes with text and direction by Pasqual in which poetry, memories and cinema were mixed. In an intimate atmosphere, the actress shared the verses of classic and contemporary authors that she loved, her reflections on love and her life, an evocative text with images and music that addressed everything from the political transition of Spain to Lorca or her work with Villaronga. Paredes wanted to turn the stage into a space of confidences, where word and image would come together in a close conversation with the public, Rosana Torres reports.
Last week Pasqual was in talks with Serrat because the iconic song of the Onion lullabies by Miguel Hernández was also part of the show that had set and costume design by Daniel Bianco and production by LaZona
He presided over the Film Academy during one of the institution’s most complicated moments, during the Iraq War. She starred with her companions in that No to War of the Goya of 2003. “A historical moment of great significance. An act of freedom. The entire country denied the war and that lie about weapons of mass destruction. The entire profession came out and everyone followed that cry… I put the ‘No to War’ stickers in a shoe box, going to the gala,” he said in an interview in EL PAÍS.
Paredes has always been committed to various political and social causes. The last was with the arrival of Vox to the regional governments in alliances with the PP. “But what is this, how can they be so afraid of freedom, of culture?” the interpreter asked at a campaign event with Sumar in July 2023 after these right-wing coalitions announced cancellations of different works of theater and films in those places where they ruled.
He recently returned to work with a role in the final chapters of Dressed in blue (Atresplayer), Javis production. She leaves behind a daughter, María, who she had with her first husband, Antonio Isasi Isasmendi, also an actress: “The flower of my life!” she said of her.