Alberto Olmedo
Encyclopedia
Alberto Olmedo was an Argentine
comedian and actor.
Olmedo was born in Barrio Pichincha
, Rosario
, Santa Fe Province
. In his teens, he was a gifted gymnast
and an aspiring actor, who tried his luck with several amateur theater companies and enjoyed some local success.
Olmedo moved to Buenos Aires
in 1954. One year later, while working as a technician
in Canal 7
, Argentina's first television station, his improvisation
skills caught the attention of the management, who gave him acting jobs in several TV shows.
Even though Olmedo had a string of successful children's programs during the 1960s, the peak of his abilities would arrive when given the opportunity to mix slapstick
, nonsense, and adult-oriented entertainment.
Many of Olmedo's movies in the 1980s were adult-oriented comedies featuring Jorge Porcel
and vedettes Moria Casán
and Susana Giménez
. Conservative Argentine authorities rated these movies as PM-18 (age 18 and above), save for a few tamer films aimed at family audiences.
The "Olmedo and Porcel" movies are considered to be the pinnacle of Argentina's sexploitation
movie genre. Most of these movies were directed by Gerardo Sofovich
or his brother Hugo
, who also directed Olmedo's TV shows El Chupete (The Pacifier) and No Toca Botón! (Don't Touch That Button!).
Olmedo's Capitán Piluso show was a hit with children in the 1960s, but he preferred working for adult audiences. After acting in the successful Operación Ja Ja weekly show, Olmedo landed his first leading role in El Chupete.
In 1976, shortly after the beginning of the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process
, Olmedo had his own death announced on the show. Once the truth was revealed, the actor was punished for his prank and banished from the airwaves for two years.
In the 1980s, No Toca Botón! was the highest-rated show in Argentina. In fits of improvisation, Olmedo would stray from script, tear down props, dash past the cameras, and verbally abuse his fellow actors. He created popular characters such as General González, Rucucu the Ukrainian
magician, the dictator of Costa Pobre (a parody of a banana republic
ruler; its name is a pun on Costa Rica
, since the country's name means "rich coast" and Costa Pobre means "poor coast"), and above all el Manosanta ("the miracle
healer"), a multi-level parody on charlatan
s of all stripes and Argentines' reckless pursuit of sex and money.
Those years saw the blooming of a partnership with character actor Javier Portales
, who provided a counterweight to Olmedo's wild improvising.
Olmedo, who was nicknamed el Negro, would evoke his Rosario background by using Rosario slang
and narrating implausible stories about his childhood exploits.
, Buenos Aires Province
, on March 5, 1988. According to police reports, he slipped off his eleventh-floor apartment's balcony. It is believed that he tried, possibly under the influence of alcohol
or cocaine
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=211329, to perform a high-wire stunt
on the balcony and lost his balance. The only witness to his last moments was girlfriend Nancy Herrera, who was pregnant with his posthumous son Alberto http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/02/10/sociedad/s-01604252.htm.
Olmedo married and divorced twice, and had six children (including Alberto Jr.). He is buried in La Chacarita Cemetery
, Buenos Aires
.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
comedian and actor.
Olmedo was born in Barrio Pichincha
Barrio Pichincha
Pichincha is a barrio in the city of Rosario, . It is located on the north-east part of the central area of the city, and its limits are Ovidio Lagos Avenue , Francia Avenue , Rivadavia Avenue, and Salta St.The assembling of this barrio was motivated by the growth of the railway lines and the...
, Rosario
Rosario
Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....
, Santa Fe Province
Santa Fe Province
The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
. In his teens, he was a gifted gymnast
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
and an aspiring actor, who tried his luck with several amateur theater companies and enjoyed some local success.
Olmedo moved to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
in 1954. One year later, while working as a technician
Technician
A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skills and techniques, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Experienced technicians in a specific tool domain typically have intermediate understanding of theory and expert...
in Canal 7
Canal 7 Argentina
Canal Siete, TV Pública or TV Pública Digital is an Argentine television network founded on October 17, 1951. Between 1979 and 1999, the network was known as Argentina Televisora Color . During the 1978 World Cup, it was known as A78TV.Owned, financed and operated by the Argentine State, Canal 7 is...
, Argentina's first television station, his improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
skills caught the attention of the management, who gave him acting jobs in several TV shows.
Even though Olmedo had a string of successful children's programs during the 1960s, the peak of his abilities would arrive when given the opportunity to mix slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
, nonsense, and adult-oriented entertainment.
Film career
Starting with Gringalet in 1959, Olmedo starred in 49 movies, including: Los Doctores las Prefieren Desnudas (Doctors Prefer Them Naked), in 1973, Maridos en Vacaciones, (Husbands on Vacation, 1975), Fotógrafo de Señoras (Ladies' Photographer, 1978), Las Mujeres Son Cosas de Guapos (1981), Los Fierecillos Indomables (The Indomitable Little Beasts, 1982), Sálvese Quien Pueda (Every Man for Himself, 1984), and Rambito y Rambón, Primera Misión (Little Rambo and Big Rambo, First Mission, 1986). His last movie was Atracción Peculiar, released shortly after his death. Los Fierecillos Indomables had a sequel in 1983.Many of Olmedo's movies in the 1980s were adult-oriented comedies featuring Jorge Porcel
Jorge Porcel
Jorge Raúl Porcel de Peralta was a comedy actor and television host from Argentina. He was nicknamed El Gordo de América...
and vedettes Moria Casán
Moria Casán
Moria Casán is an Argentine actress, television host, producer, media personality and vedette. Her Net worth estimated in $300 million. She is one of the most important women in Argentine show. She has a long career in cinema, theatre and television.- Career :Casán was born in Buenos Aires...
and Susana Giménez
Susana Giménez
Susana Giménez, née María Susana Giménez Aubert is an Argentine actress, ex-vedette and television host....
. Conservative Argentine authorities rated these movies as PM-18 (age 18 and above), save for a few tamer films aimed at family audiences.
The "Olmedo and Porcel" movies are considered to be the pinnacle of Argentina's sexploitation
Sexploitation
Sexploitation, or "sex-exploitation", describes a class of independently produced, low-budget feature films generally associated with the 1960s and serving largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and gratuitous nudity. The genre is a subgenre of exploitation films...
movie genre. Most of these movies were directed by Gerardo Sofovich
Gerardo Sofovich
Gerardo Sofovich is an Argentine businessman, impresario, TV host actor, comedian, scriptwriter, and film director....
or his brother Hugo
Hugo Sofovich
Hugo Sofovich was an Argentine film director and screenwriter.Although predominantly a screenwriter, Sofovich directed 15 films and script write over 20 films during his career, directed and writing films such as Amante para dos in 1988...
, who also directed Olmedo's TV shows El Chupete (The Pacifier) and No Toca Botón! (Don't Touch That Button!).
TV career
In 1976, shortly after the beginning of the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
, Olmedo had his own death announced on the show. Once the truth was revealed, the actor was punished for his prank and banished from the airwaves for two years.
In the 1980s, No Toca Botón! was the highest-rated show in Argentina. In fits of improvisation, Olmedo would stray from script, tear down props, dash past the cameras, and verbally abuse his fellow actors. He created popular characters such as General González, Rucucu the Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
magician, the dictator of Costa Pobre (a parody of a banana republic
Banana republic
In political science, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions , which is ruled by a plutocracy, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy...
ruler; its name is a pun on Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, since the country's name means "rich coast" and Costa Pobre means "poor coast"), and above all el Manosanta ("the miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
healer"), a multi-level parody on charlatan
Charlatan
A charlatan is a person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame or other advantages via some form of pretense or deception....
s of all stripes and Argentines' reckless pursuit of sex and money.
Those years saw the blooming of a partnership with character actor Javier Portales
Javier Portales
Javier Portales, whose birth name was Miguel Ángel Álvarez, was an Argentine actor with work in television, film and theater....
, who provided a counterweight to Olmedo's wild improvising.
Olmedo, who was nicknamed el Negro, would evoke his Rosario background by using Rosario slang
Rosarigasino
Rosarigasino is a language game traditionally associated with the city of Rosario, , even though very few people, if any, currently employ it....
and narrating implausible stories about his childhood exploits.
Death
Olmedo died in the vacation town of Mar del PlataMar del Plata
Mar del Plata is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, south of Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata is the second largest city of Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" had apparently the sense of "sea of the Río de la Plata region" or "adjoining sea to the Río de la Plata"...
, Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, on March 5, 1988. According to police reports, he slipped off his eleventh-floor apartment's balcony. It is believed that he tried, possibly under the influence of alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
or cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=211329, to perform a high-wire stunt
Tightrope walking
Tightrope walking is the art of walking along a thin wire or rope, usually at a great height. One or more artists performs in front of an audience or as a publicity stunt...
on the balcony and lost his balance. The only witness to his last moments was girlfriend Nancy Herrera, who was pregnant with his posthumous son Alberto http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/02/10/sociedad/s-01604252.htm.
Olmedo married and divorced twice, and had six children (including Alberto Jr.). He is buried in La Chacarita Cemetery
La Chacarita Cemetery
Cementerio de la Chacarita in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is known as the National Cemetery and is the largest in Argentina.-Location:The cemetery is in the barrio or district of Chacarita, in the northern part of Buenos Aires...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
.
External links
- "Official" home page (in Spanish)
- Olmedo Bio (in Spanish)
- An exposition of Olmedo-related art