Juan Torena

Juan de Garchitorena y Carvajal, also known as Juan Torena (24 March 1898 – 27 June 1983) was a Filipino footballer who played as a forward for Barcelona in the late 1910s, and an American Hollywood actor between the 1930s and the 1950s.

Early life Garchitorena was born on 24 March 1898 in Manila, Philippines, which at the time was a colony of Spain, to a prosperous merchant Hispanofilipino family, originally from Navarre. In the weeks following his birth, his mother died of childbirth complications and the Spanish–American War broke out, so once the conflict was over, the family moved to Spain, settling in Barcelona, where Torena grew up. He made his debut with the first team on 25 March 1916, one day after turning 18 years old, in a friendly match against Alfonso XIII, but then had to wait several months to make his official debut on 26 November, in a Catalan championship match against Sabadell, scoring in a 4–0 win. Interestingly, however, he was Spanish, as he had been born in Manila, then a colony of Spain, but the head of the Garchitorena family had declared them as Argentine when they arrived in Barcelona, so he was banned by the Spanish league for falsely declaring Argentinian citizenship.

Acting career After retiring from football in 1920, Garchitorena and his older brother, Angel, returned to the Philippines in 1921 to resettle in their homeland, where he looked after the family business.

Torena died in Santa Barbara, California, on 27 June 1983, at the age of 85, and is buried in the Calvary Cemetery, where his tombstone bears both his real and his stage names.

Filmography

Shadows of Glory (1930) Road of Hell (1931) There Were Thirteen (1931) Nothing More Than a Woman (1934) La cruz y la espada (1934) Storm Over the Andes (1935) The Devil on Horseback (1936) Captain Calamity (1936) Espionage (1937) Mis dos amores (1938) American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)