An actor with "no comparison"

Spanish film, television and theater actor Juan Luis Galiardo died in Madrid last week. He was 72 and had been suffering from lung cancer.

Born in 1940 in the town of San Roque in Cádiz province, he was a genuine creature of the stage and a force of nature capable of both moments of artistic genius and verbal excesses. His hometown declared three days of morning following his death on June 21.

Galiardo, who had a gift for performance, and was admired by everyone who worked with him, starred in films such as El disputado voto del señor Cayo, Madregilda, Familia, Lázaro de Tormes, Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella, El caballero Don Quijote, Todos a la cárcel and La chispa de la vida.

That last film, directed by Alex de la Iglesia, marked his final appearance on the big screen.

"Galiardo is... just that, Galiardo, he has no comparison," answered the film director when asked about the actor's participation in the movie on the eve of its release.

Luis García Berlanga, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Fernando Fernán Gómez, José Luis Cuerda, Francisco Regueiroo, Fernando León de Aranoa and Santiago Segura were just some of the other directors with whom he worked.

Prize winner

In 2000, the Spanish Cinema Academy gave him the Goya Award for Best Actor for his role in director José Luis García Sánchez's Adiós con el corazón, written by Rafael Azcona.

On television, Galiardo starred in such series as Turno de oficio, La Regenta and 23-F, el día más difícil del Rey for state TV network TVE, and Farmacia de guardia and Por fin solos for Antena 3.

By the late 1960s he was already appearing in plays produced for TVE's very popular Estudio 1 theater slot. After that, he practically never left the set. His final appearance came in the Antena 3 series Gran Hotel.

Galiardo also lavished similar attention on the theater, where he gave a number of unforgettable performances.

Notable in this respect were his roles in productions of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author; William Shakespeare's King Lear, directed by Miguel Narros; Ramón María del Valle-Inclán's Comedias bárbaras and Molière's The Miser.