Rabal, Francisco

b. 1925, Aguilas (Murcia)

   Film actor

   After a series of films in the 1950s, including Luna de sangre (Blood Moon) (1950), Murió hace quince años (He Died Fifteen Years Ago) (1954) and Prisionero del mar (Prisoner of the Sea) (1957), it was his appearances in Buñuel's Nazarín (1958), Viridiana (1961) and Belle de jour (1966) which brought Rabal international recognition. In the 1960s and 1970s he also worked with such directors as Carlos Saura, in Llanto par un bandido (Lament for a Bandit) (1963), and Camino, in Las largas vacaciones de 1936 (The Long Holidays of 1936) (1976). His films of the 1980s and 1990s include Camus" La colmena (The Hive) (1982) and his Los santos inocentes (The Holy Innocents) (1984) in which Rabal played the half-mad uncle, a role for which he shared a prize for best actor with Alfredo Landa, and won the National Cinematography Prize; Patino's Los paraísos perdidos (Lost Paradises) (1985), in which he played an ageing intellectual; García Sánchez's Divinas palabras (Divine Words) (1987); Almodó-var's ¡Atame! (Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!) (1989); L'autre (The Other) (1991) and El hombre que perdió su sombrero (The Man Who Lost His Hat) (1991). In 1984 he was best male actor at the Cannes Film Festival, and in 1991 he won prizes as best actor in Montreal and Gijón. In 1994 he published his memoirs under the title Si yo te contara (If I Told You).

   See also: film and cinema

   EAMONN RODGERS