Fernando Rey

Fernando Rey was a Spanish film, theatre, and television actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States. He was a suave, international actor best known for his roles in the films of surrealist director Luis Buñuel and as the drug lord Alain Charnier in The French Connection and its sequel. He appeared in more than 150 films over half a century. Rey was born in A Coruña, Spain, the son of Captain Casado Veiga and Sara Arambillet Rey. He studied architecture, but the Spanish Civil War interrupted his university studies which led him to his success. Rey and his father fought on the side of the Loyalists and by the end of the war were impoverished. In 1936, Rey began his career in films as an extra, sometimes even getting credited. It was then that he chose his stage name, Fernando Rey. He kept his first name, but took his mother's second surname, Rey, a short surname with a clear meaning ("Rey" is Spanish for "King"). In 1944, his first speaking role was the Duke of Alba in José López Rubio's Eugenia de Montijo. Four years later, he acted the part of Felipe I el Hermoso, King of Spain, in the Spanish cinema blockbuster Locura de amor. This was the start of a prolific career in film (he played in around two hundred films), radio, theatre, and television. Rey was also a great dubbing actor in Spanish television. His voice was considered intense and personal, and he became the narrator of important Spanish movies including Luis García Berlanga's Bienvenido Mr. Marshall (1953), Ladislao Vajda's Marcelino Pan y Vino (1955), and even the 1992 re-dubbed version of Orson Welles' Don Quixote. In fact, Rey acted in four different film versions of Don Quixote in different roles, if one counts the Welles version (for which Rey supplied offscreen narration in the final scene). Rey's most fruitful collaboration was with the great director Luis Buñuel, which began during the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. The films that Rey appeared in for Buñuel made him an international star, the first produced by the Spanish cinema. He achieved his greatest fame after he turned 50: "Perhaps it is a pity that my success came so late in life", he told the Los Angeles Times. "It might have been better to have been successful while young, like El Cordobés in the bullring. Then your life is all before you to enjoy it." He starred in Buñuel's Viridiana (1961), Tristana (1970), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), and That Obscure Object of Desire (1977). He also worked with other renowned directors such as Orson Welles (Chimes at Midnight), Michelangelo Antonioni (The Passenger), Jacques Demy (Donkey Skin), Carlos Saura (Elisa, My Life), John Frankenheimer (The Holcroft Covenant), and many others. Rey was also known to American audiences for his role as Charnier, the smooth villain who eludes a narcotics detective in William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971) and its sequel French Connection II (1975). He received several awards and honors for his work, including a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for Elisa, My Life (1977), a César Award nomination for That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), a Goya Award for Best Actor for Diario de invierno (1988), and a gold medal of the Spanish Art and Movie Sciences Academy. He became the president of that Academy from 1992 till his death. Rey was married to Argentine actress Mabel Karr from 1960 until his death. They had two sons, Fernando and Enrique. Rey died of bladder cancer in Madrid on March 9, 1994, at the age of 76. He was buried at the Cementerio de la Almudena in Madrid. His tombstone reads: "Fernando Rey. Actor. A Coruña 1917 - Madrid 1994. He rests in peace with his wife, Mabel Karr."