The award-winning Spanish actor Marisa Paredes, best known to international audiences for her work with directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo del Toro and Roberto Benigni, has died at the age of 78.
Announcing her death on Tuesday, Spain’s film academy said the country had lost one of its “most iconic actors” and a beloved veteran of more than 75 films.
“Her body of work was defined by women who were strong, ambivalent, broken, passionate, enigmatic, but who were, above all, very human,” it added.
Paredes, who made her big screen debut at the age of 14, began working with Almodóvar when she starred in his 1983 film Dark Habits. She went on to appear in High Heels (1991), The Flower of My Secret (1995), All About My Mother (1999), and The Skin I Live in (2011), cementing her reputation as one of his trusted and treasured collaborators.
She also appeared in Benigni’s divisive 1997 comedy-drama Life is Beautiful, which won three Oscars, and Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone, a horror film set during the Spanish civil war.
Paredes (centre left) with her All About My Mother co-stars and the film’s director, Pedro Almodóvar (front). Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
Paredes was born in Madrid in 1946 and said her upbringing, close to the city’s renowned, centuries-old Teatro Español, had inspired her desire to act.
“I was born with my vocation,” she told one interviewer. “But it also had a lot to do with the neighbourhood where I lived – the Plaza de Santa Ana. Right in the middle of it back then was that wonderful statue [of the famous playwright Pedro] Calderón de la Barca.”
Between 2000 and 2003, Paredes served as the president of the film academy, which bestowed an honorary Goya award on her six years ago.
As word of her death spread, tributes came from leading cultural and political figures. “We’re devastated by the news,” said Pedro Almodóvar’s brother and production partner, Agustín Almodóvar. “So long, dearest Marisa.”
Antonio Banderas also said he was deeply saddened by the death of one of the “great women of acting”, adding: “You’ve left us too soon, dear friend.”
Penélope Cruz, who appeared with Paredes in All About My Mother, said: “My dear Marisa, you’ve left us too soon. I love you. Safe journey.”
Gilles Jacob, the former president of the Cannes film festival, recalled Paredes’s “calm grace; that gentle cheer that she ignited with one look of her pale eyes”.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the country had lost one of the most important actors it had ever produced as well as a woman who cared deeply about democracy and social justice. “Her presence in cinema and theatre and her commitment to democracy will be an example to future generations,” he added.
The country’s labour minister and deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, said: “Marisa Paredes, one of the best actors of our age, has died. But she was, above all, a friend. She was always ready to help anyone who needed speaking up for and she always defended just causes. Today, the world is a little sadder and a little darker. We’re really going to miss you.”
The Film Academy said people would be able to pay their respects to Paredes at a wake at the Teatro Español on Wednesday morning.
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