actor and director rudolph baben, who had been hospitalized in a nursing home for some years, died this Saturday at the age of 84. From the network of the Argentine Association of Actors he expressed: “With great pain we say goodbye to the actor and director. His extensive artistic career includes unforgettable works in film, theater and television. Been associated with our union since 1962. We are with his children, family and loved ones in this difficult time.”
none other than the great director and singer Leonardo Favio once declared that Rodolfo Beban “had the best clay in his hands”.Given that much of its success was in Juan Moreira’s brilliant creation, it was rooted in a curious source of inspiration: Toshiro Mifune in Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films.
His career was extremely eclectic and his work took him into all the subjects any interpreter would want to perform: Theater, Cinema, Television, His real surname was Tilly, but he adopted the same name used by his father – an actor – Miguel Beban, whom he formally called by his first name. Quite famous is the anecdote in which his father almost asked him in the form of a Chicano: “What qualified you to call yourself helpless?”. And he replied: “Nothing”. Despite a difficult bond, with his father in the director’s role, he would deliver one of his most outstanding performances. diary of a madman (Inspired by the famous story by Nikolai Gogol).
Beban debuted at the Repertory Theater in 1955 with director Pedro Escudero music at night, It can be said that his career began almost as a teenage prank, when with a friend he read a poster at Morón’s Municipal Theater that declared: “Fuentevezuna needs extras”. First he was an extra and then he got the lead in a new project. However, he recently gained massive recognition at the hand of writer Nene Kaskler, who in his 60s selected him to play one of the leading men in the series. love has a woman’s face, as the historical television pair of characters played by Barbara Mujica and Thelma Biral. The telenovela was broadcast continuously from 1964 to 1971 and figures of stature Norma Alandro, Arnaldo Andre, Federico Luppi, Ana Maria Picchio, Sergio Rennanamong many others.
In the same period he worked as Romeo in the television version of Romeo and Juliet By William Shakespeare, directed by Maria Herminia Avellaneda and Evangelina Salazar in the role of Juliet. Del Bardo also performed small village (directed by Rodolfo Graziano) and othello, And in 1978 he faced another British classic, this time by the great Emily Bronte: he starred in the miniseries together with Fernanda Mistral and Alicia Bruzzo. Wuthering Heights, His most memorable performances for the small screen are also malevo (1972), Wrist (1973), cat (1976) U Nazarene Kings (1984).
On stage, Beban stood out, above all, for his role as a comedian. He was part of the Cervantes Theater’s national comedy and during the 60s and 70s he participated in projects with the great names of the time., Lover With Susanna Fields, Fernanda Mistral, Lydia Lamison, Adrianita and Norberto Suarez; the odd Couple with Palito Ortega; let’s live a dream with Claudia Lapako; butterflies are freeWith Ana Maria Campoy, China Zorilla, Gabriela Gilly and a young Susanna Jimenez; lorenzacio, by Alfred de Musset with Alfredo Alcon; a theatrical version of stuck with no exit with Fernanda Mistral and Carlos Carrella; You Saber, by Pacho O’Donnell, who took on the controversial figure of Juan Manuel de Rosas. The author of this final piece recalled it yesterday: Saber It premiered at the Pero Theater in 2004. Then I met Rodolfo Beban, a great actor and wonderful man, who owned an excellent culture and had a remarkable loyalty to his beliefs. He strove for a good actor and devoted talent and perseverance, but he always shied away from fame and visionary performances, jealous patrons of his impeccable intimacy. I learned to love and admire him.”
On the big screen, Beban acted in films like hand in hand and down the street (1966, with Evangelina Salazar by Enrique Carreras), piranhasi (1967, by Luis García Berlanga), Earlier boys didn’t use prison (1969, by Enrique Carreras) and Juan Manuel de Rosso (1972, by Manuel Antin), in which he once again brought Caudilo to life. However, the great Abhishek in cinema went hand in hand with the lead role. John Moreira (1973, by Leonardo Favio), for which he was inspired by Kurosawa Samurai and for which he received recognition from both the public and particular critics. The film went on to become one of the highest-grossing films in Argentine history, and Beban once admitted that Favio would never have seen it on TV.
The job brought him not only prestige and popularity, but also significant love, often beyond rumours, which linked him to figures with whom he shared scenes in fiction. Beban was in a relationship with model Liz Amaral Paz, with whom he had a daughter, Dolores. Years later he married actress Claudia Lapaco, with whom he had children Rodrigo and Diego. And later he became a duet with another famous actress of the time, Gabriela Gili, with whom he had children Fascundo, Daniela and Pedro. The coexistence lasted 17 years, with only 46 years until Gilly’s early death in 1991. The last coexistence that became publicly known was with actress Adriana Castro – 25 years younger than him – and it ended in 1995.
Beban was an iconic actor, but at the height of his fame he must have suffered what many actors with a handsome face and big impact have to suffer at some point in their careers: With unbearable levels of popularity, permanent siege of fans and authority over the idol that many people boast of in a somewhat autocratic manner. The actor resigned from fatherhood and moments of daily peace for that euphoria, stopped doing the things he loved doing dancing tango or fencing tournaments. Along with the recognition came the dehumanization to which the stars (and, in particular, the leading men) are usually exposed: that Rodolfo was no longer the babe and had become the “man of the soap opera”. But – it is known – that fame usually has a price.
The actor defined himself as shy (hence his reluctance to media and interview positions, perhaps as a result of those sufferings in his youth), he recognized the theater as his great love and missed the television programming of his time. Went. So, probably, faced with several offers for TV at the end of his career, he simply said “no”. Argentines generally enjoy binary competitions (River/Boca, Peronism/Radicalism, Soda Stereo/Los Redondos) and Beban was not exempt from this: from his work in lorenzacio There were rumors of a certain rivalry with Alfredo Alcón, which he himself took care to deny. When his colleague died, Beban said the actors had lost a beautiful mirror in which to look at themselves. Now they have lost another.
