José Suárez
Encyclopedia
Career
José Suárez made his debut in a short role in Altar Mayor (1944), a very conventional film, whose director, Gonzalo Delgrás, had paid attention to him in his work as a train conductor in Asturias. He played increasingly important roles in following Delgrás's movies and by 1948 he was already a lead actor.He then became very popular in Spain along the late 40s and early 50s, as one of the main heartthrobs of the Spanish cinema, along with his contemporaries Francisco Rabal
Francisco Rabal
Francisco Rabal , perhaps better known as Paco Rabal, was a Spanish actor born in Águilas, a small town in the province of Murcia, Spain....
, Jorge Mistral
Jorge Mistral
Jorge Mistral born Modesto Llosas Rosell was a Spanish film actor. His father was from Puerto Rico and his mother from Catalonia. During the 40s, he became a star in films produced by CIFESA. In the 50s, he lived and worked in México and appeared in Luis Buñuel's Abismos de pasión...
and Alfredo Mayo
Alfredo Mayo
Alfredo Mayo was a Spanish actor.- Biography :After leaving his studies of medicine in 1929, Mayo debuts at theatre with the company of Ernesto Vilches...
. Nevertheless he performed remarkably in three outstanding dramas, namely Brigada criminal (1950), Condenados
Condenados
Condenados is a Spanish 1953 rural melodrama film directed by Manuel Mur Oti and written by José Suárez Carreño and Mur Oti from a Suarez Carreño's play of the same title...
(1953) and Así es Madrid (1953), in the screen version of Buero Vallejo
Antonio Buero Vallejo
Antonio Buero Vallejo was a Spanish playwright considered the most important Spanish dramatist of the Spanish Civil War...
`s most famous play, Historia de una escalera (1950), and in the historical superproduction (for Spanish standards) Alba de América (Dawn of America, 1951), playing King Fernando el Católico
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...
. He also co-starred with the popular Andalusian
Andalusian people
The Andalusians are the people of the southern region in Spain approximated by what is now called Andalusia. They are generally not considered an ethnically distinct people because they lack two of the most important markers of distinctiveness: their own language and an awareness of a presumed...
gipsy singer and dancer Lola Flores
Lola Flores
María Dolores "Lola" Flores Ruiz was a Spanish singer, dancer, and actress.- Professional career :Flores was born in Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz . Although thought to be only part gypsy, she strongly identified with the Spanish gypsy culture...
La danza de los deseos (1954), directed by the most prestigious veteran Spanish film-maker, Florián Rey
Florián Rey
Florián Rey , born at La Almunia de Doña Godina, , 25 January 1894 - death at Benidorm , 11 April 1962 was the most successful Spanish film director in the 20's and 30's....
.
In 1956, his lead role in the internationally acclaimed Calle Mayor
Calle mayor
Main street is a 1956 Spanish drama film directed by Juan Antonio Bardem. It features a French-Spanish cast led by the American actress Betsy Blair, who was dubbed into Spanish, as well as the Spanish actor José Suárez. It is based on a Carlos Arniches' play titled La señorita de Trévelez. The...
(undoubtedly his best role, his best performance and his best film, although he always preferred Condenados) provided him with the opportunity to work in Italy with well-known film directors as Luigi Zampa
Luigi Zampa
Luigi Zampa was an Italian film-maker.- Biography :Son of a worker, Zampa studied film making from 1932 to 1937 at the Italian film school Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome....
in The Magistrate, starring with Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...
, and Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi is an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi.-Biography:After studying Law, but hoping to study film, Rosi entered the industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema...
in La sfida
La sfida
La sfida is a 1958 Italian film by Francesco Rosi. It stars José Suárez as a gang leader who challenges a local Camorra boss for supremacy...
, starring with Rosanna Schiaffino
Rosanna Schiaffino
Rosanna Schiaffino was an Italian film actress. She appeared on the covers of Italian, German, French, British and American magazines.-Early life:...
, while he gradually lost his popularity in his home country, despite still appearing in the 60s in some interesting Spanish movies, such as A tiro limpio (1963) or La boda (1964).
Sword and sandal
The Peplum , also known as Sword-and-Sandal, is a genre of largely Italian-made Historical or Biblical Epics that dominated the Italian film industry from 1957 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by the "Spaghetti Western"...
and spaghetti westerns movies, the most interesting of all them being The Price of Power
The Price of Power
The Price of Power is an Spanish-Italian Spaghetti Western directed by Tonino Valerii.-Political references:The film has many political overtures, most notably drawing similarities between the assassinations of two American presidents James Garfield and John F. Kennedy...
(1969), also known as Il Prezzo del potere or La Muerte de un Presidente. And he even played the lead in El Llanero (1964), one of the first films directed by the (in)famous master of the sexually-charged horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s, Jesús Franco
Jesús Franco
Jesús "Jess" Franco is a Spanish film director, writer, cinematographer and actor. His career took off in 1961 with his cult classic The Awful Dr. Orloff, which received wide distribution in the United States and England...
.
In the 70's he played too for the National Spanish television
Televisión Española
Televisión Española is the national state-owned public-service television broadcaster in Spain. TVE's activities were previously financed by a combination of advertising revenue and subsidies from the national government, but since it's been supported by subsidies only.TVE belongs to the RTVE...
in a few series
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
, including a Spanish-Italian coproduction on the life of Cristóbal Colón
Cristobal Colon
Cristobal Colon may refer to:*Cristobal Colon, Spanish version of the name of the explorer Christopher Columbus*Spanish cruiser Cristobal Colon , a Spanish unprotected cruiser that foundered off Cuba in 1895...
.
His last film was La trastienda (1975), an artistically dispensable but sociologically significant Spanish picture, coincident with the end of Franco era in Spain.
Suárez was for many years president of the Spanish Actors Union.
Moreda
Moreda is one of 18 parishes in Aller, a municipality within the province and autonomous community of Asturias, in northern Spain.The altitude above sea level...
, Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
.
Selected filmography
- 1975 La Trastienda
- 1974 Los Caballeros del Botón de Ancla
- 1972 A Reason to Live, a Reason to DieA Reason to Live, a Reason to DieA Reason to Live, a Reason to Die is a 1972 spaghetti western movie starring James Coburn.Many exterior scenes were filmed at the Fort Bowie set built in the Province of Almería, Spain, where the desert landscape and climate that characterizes part of the province have made it a much utilized...
- 1972 Marianela
- 1971 La Montaña rebelde
- 1971 El Cristo del Océano·
- 1969 La muerte de un presidenteThe Price of PowerThe Price of Power is an Spanish-Italian Spaghetti Western directed by Tonino Valerii.-Political references:The film has many political overtures, most notably drawing similarities between the assassinations of two American presidents James Garfield and John F. Kennedy...
- 1969 Il Pistolero dell'Ave Maria
- 1969 El Taxi de los conflictos
- 1967 Mister Dynamit - morgen küßt Euch der Tod
- 1966 El Primer cuartel
- 1966 Texas, addio
- 1965 Sette uomini d'oro
- 1964 El llanero
- 1964 La Boda
- 1964 Le Verdi bandiere di Allah
- 1963 A tiro limpio
- 1961 Scano Boa
- 1959 Cartagine in fiamme
- 1959 Il magistratoIl magistratoThe Magistrate is a 1959 Italian-language drama film directed by Luigi Zampa. It was a co-production with Spain and France. Spaniard José Suárez stars in the film, which was shot in Madrid , with a French, Italian and Spanish cast...
- 1958 La sfidaLa sfidaLa sfida is a 1958 Italian film by Francesco Rosi. It stars José Suárez as a gang leader who challenges a local Camorra boss for supremacy...
- 1958 Gli italiani sono matti
- 1957 Las aeroguapas
- 1956 Calle mayorCalle mayorMain street is a 1956 Spanish drama film directed by Juan Antonio Bardem. It features a French-Spanish cast led by the American actress Betsy Blair, who was dubbed into Spanish, as well as the Spanish actor José Suárez. It is based on a Carlos Arniches' play titled La señorita de Trévelez. The...
- 1954 Once pares de botas·
- 1954 La Danza de los deseos·
- 1953 Condenados·
- 1953 Así es Madrid·
- 1952 Ronda española·
- 1951 Alba de América·
- 1950 Historia de una escalera.
- 1950 Aquel hombre de Tánger·
- 1950 Brigada criminal·
- 1949 La Mujer de nadie
- 1947 Oro y marfil·
- 1947 Trece onzas de oro·
- 1944 Altar mayor·