Juan Diego, legend of Spanish cinema, dies at 79

Juan Diego, an iconic actor thanks to films like ‘The Holy Innocents’ and series like ‘Paco’s Men’, has died this Thursday at the age of 79. This has been confirmed by the family (via THE COUNTRY), who has reported that “in recent years he has dragged various ailments”. A few days ago he was hospitalized at the Zarzuela Clinic in Madrid, where he died this morning. Now the industry is saying goodbye to a legend, winner of three Goya awards, who stood out for his acting work in film, television and theater, in addition to his political commitment.

Winner of two Silver Frames (for the film ‘Vete de mí’ and for the series ‘Los Hombres de Paco’), as well as a Special Silver Frames Tribute to a career delivered in 2014Juan Diego has left his mark with characters ranging from the brusque, violent or authoritarian men in films such as ‘The Creature’ (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1977), ‘The Holy Innocents’ (Mario Camus, 1984), ‘The 7th Day ‘ (Carlos Saura, 2004) or ‘Everything is silence’ (José Luis Cuerda, 2012), to the charismatic, humorous and tremendously funny characters that he embodied in films like ‘La corte de Faraón‘ (Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez, 1985), ‘Paris-Timbuktu’ (Luis G. Berlanga, 1999) or ‘Torremolinos 73’ (Pablo Berger, 2003), passed through historical figures such as Francisco Franco in ‘Dragón Rapide’ (Jaime Camino, 1986) and San Juan de la Cruz in ‘ The dark night‘ (1989).

Of course, his has been a memorable career of more than half a century where there has not been a minute to rest, and in which he received up to nine Goya award nominations and won three (with ‘El rey pasmado’, ‘ Get away from me’ and Paris-Timbuktu’). Other titles in his filmography are ‘The life that awaits you’, ‘Fugitives’, ‘Smoking Room’ and ‘Casual Day’, among others. That yes, many will remember him for appearing on our television every week in the series ‘Los hombres de Paco’, one of the most successful of his career, The Antena 3 production, one of the most followed by viewers, followed the problems everyday life of some clumsy policemen from the San Antonio police station, where Juan Diego was commissioner. His was one of the most beloved characters in the series.

In an interview with FOTOGRAMAS in 2006, he spoke about his family and his work, about his tastes and his ambitions, and incidentally he left us this reflection that we now recover as a last goodbye: “I know that things are going to happen, but never in the same way. It happens to me as with life. In short, life is a movie where you have been given a role that you do not know very well what it is, and it is directed by a director crazy, capricious, that makes you repeat acts continuously, but you don’t know the ending, because they didn’t give you the script. The same thing happens to me in the job”.