Almost fifty soap operas, countless plays and more movies than any other Chilean actor. Passed away this Friday at the age of 93, Luis Alarcón leaves a career at the level of the greatest, with roles on all stages and platforms that a national interpreter could yearn for. A true emblem of the country’s acting scene.
And he was also a pioneer: in 1993 he founded Chileactores, an entity that in 2018 recognized him with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The same organization that was in charge of confirming his death, detailing that his wake will be held this Sunday at the Teatro Oriente.
Nelson Villagra, Luis Alarcón and Shenda Román in Three sad tigers (1968), by Raúl Ruiz.
He ever remembered that his first time on stage was when he was six or seven years old, in Puerto Natales, his homeland. She discovered her vocation later, after turning 20. She entered the Pedagogical Institute of the University of Chile to study, where she would acquire the first tools of her profession.
Three looks at the street (1957) was his first feature film, the takeoff of an impressive career in the cinema. He participated in the fundamental El Chacal de Nahueltoro (1969), by Miguel Littin, and established an indissoluble bond with Raúl Ruiz, who summoned him to work on titles such as Tres tristes tigres (1968), La colonia penal (1970), La expropriación ( 1974) and White Dove (1992).
Curiously, his last premiere on the big screen was also one of the first he filmed: El tango del viudo y su espejo deformante (1967-2020), a film by Ruiz that was finished by Valeria Sarmiento and the producer Poetastros, a company co-founded by Galut Alarcón, one of the actor’s sons.
Alarcón’s career became popular to a great extent thanks to the decades he spent on the screens of TVN and Canal 13. It was on public television where he achieved his most memorable roles, most of them in productions directed by Vicente Sabatini. He was in Stupid Cupid (1995), Sucupira (1996) and La fiera (1999). That last story gave him the role of Pedro Chamorro, the patriarch of a striking clan made up of the characters played by Claudia Di Girolamo, Juan Falcón and Francisca Imboden. Earlier, in 1984, he gave life to an anthology villain: Roberto Betancourt, the heartless landlord of La represa.
Pedro Chamorro, in “La Fiera” (TVN).
His last contract with the channel lasted more than 20 years and added other soap operas such as Romané (2000), El circo de las Montini (2002) and Los Capo (2005), until saying goodbye with Tell me who it was (2018). He never agreed with the coldness of his dismissal from the station, but he would return to the signal for one last occasion in 2022, to participate in an episode of The least expected day.
His face was also installed in the collective memory of the country thanks to the award-winning commercial for Firestone. Directed by Silvio Caiozzi in the mid-80s, the advertising piece allowed him to embody an Indian who narrowly escaped being run over by a brand vehicle.
Despite his advanced age, Alarcón never officially retired from his trade; Quite the contrary, whenever he could, he expressed his desire to continue acting in new productions, whether on film or television. It was the great love of his life.
2023-08-05 03:45:26
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