José Suárez

José Suárez (19 September 1919 – 6 August 1981) was a Spanish film actor.

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 the following films of Delgrás, and by 1948 he was already a lead actor.

He then became very popular in Spain along the late 1940s and the early 1950s, as one of the main heartthrobs of the Spanish cinema, along with his contemporaries Francisco Rabal, Jorge Mistral and Alfredo Mayo. Nevertheless, he performed remarkably in three outstanding dramas, namely Brigada criminal (1950), Condenados (1953) and Así es Madrid (1953), in the screen version of Buero Vallejo`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. He portrayed Zorro in the film La montaña sin ley (Lawless mountain) (1953), making him the first Spanish actor in the role. He also co-starred with the popular Andalusian gipsy singer and dancer Lola Flores in La danza de los deseos (1954), directed by the most prestigious veteran Spanish film-maker, Florián Rey. In 1955 he co-starred Señora Ama with the Mexican and Hollywood star Dolores del Río.

In 1956, his lead role in the internationally acclaimed Calle Mayor (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 in The Magistrate, starring with Claudia Cardinale, and Francesco Rosi in La sfida, starring with Rosanna Schiaffino, 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).

Despite appearing too in two successful mainstream Italian films: Scano Boa (1961) and Sette uomini d'oro (1965), eventually he was almost confined to the Spanish-Italian sword and sandal and spaghetti westerns movies, the most interesting of all them being The Price of Power (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 films, Jesús Franco.

In the 70's he played too for the National Spanish television in a few series, including a Spanish-Italian coproduction on the life of Cristóbal Colón.

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.

He died of natural causes on August 6, 1981, in Moreda, Asturias.

Selected filmography

1944: Altar mayor - José 1947: Gold and Ivory - Manolo 1947: Trece onzas de oro 1948: Un viaje de novios 1948: La muralla feliz - David Aguirre 1950: La niña de Luzmela 1950: Child of the Night - Darío 1950: Historia de una escalera - Fernando 1950: Nobody's Wife - Juan Bautista Nebot 1950: Criminal Brigade - Fernando Olmos Sánchez 1951: Dawn of America - Rey Fernando el Católico 1952: Spanish Serenade - Pablo 1953: Aquel hombre de Tánger 1953: Bronce y luna 1953: La montaña sin ley - Zorro 1953: Such is Madrid - Antonio 1953: Condenados - Juan 1954: An Impossible Crime - Inspector Alberto Bassano 1954: Eleven Pairs of Boots - Ignacio Ariza 1954: La Danza de los deseos - Juan Antonio 1955: Señora Ama - Feliciano 1955: El hombre que veía la muerte 1955: Tres melodías de amor 1956: Calle mayor - Juan 1957: The Battalion in the Shadows - Pepe 1957: Le belle dell'aria - Mario Toselli 1958: The Italians They Are Crazy - Pieroni 1958: La sfida - Vito Polara 1959: Diego Corrientes - Diego Corrientes 1959: Il magistrato - Prosecutor Andrea Morandi 1960: Cartagine in fiamme - Hiram 1960: Un bruto para Patricia - Andrés Fernández 1961: Scano Boa - Baroncello 1963: Slave Girls of Sheba - Omar 1963: El globo azul 1963: El llanero - José Mendoza 1964: A tiro limpio - Román Avelino Campos 1964: La Boda 1964: Rueda de sospechosos - Comisario Luis Lozano 1965: Sette uomini d'oro - Bank Manager 1966: Agent X-77 Orders to Kill - Franck 1966: Texas, Adios - Cisco Delgado 1967: El Primer cuartel - Capitan Fernando Martín del castillo 1967: Mister Dynamit - morgen küßt Euch der Tod - General Burch 1968: Maria Isabel - Ricardo Robles 1969: Bootleggers - Engineer 1969: El taxi de los conflictos - Guardia en puerta de comisaría 1969: Il Pistolero dell'Ave Maria - General Juan Carrasco 1969: La muerte de un presidente - Vice President Chester A. Arthur 1970: Cateto a babor - Comandante 1970: El amor de María Isabel - Ricardo Robles 1970: El mejor del mundo - Paco Vélez 1971: El Cristo del Océano - Don Eustaquio 1971: Los jóvenes amantes 1971: La Montaña rebelde - Damasio 1972: María 1972: Marianela - Dr. Golfín 1972: A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die - maggiore Charles Ballard 1974: Los Caballeros del Botón de Ancla - Director de la escuela naval 1975: La Trastienda - Don Pablo