The Mexican Film Bulletin Spring 2021 Award. Carriere would be nominated for 3 screenwriting So…Many…Obituaries Oscars, and received an honorary Academy Award in This is probably the most obituaries to appear a single 2015. issue of MFB, although the five-month gap between the Carriere worked numerous times with Luis Buñuel, on previous issue and this one is largely to blame. It is the director’s later (non-Mexican) films. Carriere’s career important to recognise the careers of these individuals, was mostly spent in the French film industry, although he even if space limits us to a paragraph or two for each did co-write the Mexican-Spanish-French co-production person. Antonieta (1982). The next issue of MFB should be available in the fall. Abel Casillas René Cardona III Actor Abel Casillas passed away on 3 January 2021; René Cardona III passed away at his home in Tijuana he was 68 years old and had been on 16 May 2021; he was 59 years old. René Cardona suffering from COVID-19. Casillas Chávez was born in 1962, the son of actor and future was born in Jalisco in April 1952, director René Cardona and began appearing in films in the Jr. and dancer-actress 1970s. He eventually earned more Gloria Chávez. His than 40 feature film credits and paternal grandfather worked on numerous telenovelas was actor-director René and television programs. Casillas was also an active Cardona Sr. René III member of the ANDA actors’ union, serving as began appearing in representative on both domestic and international films. films in the late 1960s, He held leadership posts in the union as well. including Santo contra Capulina and El Patricio Castillo hermano Capulina; in the 1970s he was billed as “Al Actor Patricio Castillo passed away on 15 April 2021 Coster” in El pequeño Robin Hood, Zindy el niño del in Mexico City; he was 82 years of pantano (co-starring in both with his grandfather René age. Castillo was born in Chile in Sr.,), Ciclón, Triángulo diabólico de las Bermudas, and 1940 (some sources say 1939) and other pictures. studied chemical engineering After attending film school in the USA, René III before becoming an actor. He returned to Mexico and acted in some additional films, visited Mexico in 1964 as part of a but also began working behind the camera on his father’s touring company and eventually movies. He directed his first feature film in 1988, and became a Mexico citizen. Castillo appeared in many over the next 3 decades worked steadily as a director, stage productions and telenovelas, as well as films like mostly on videohomes but also some theatrical features. Mecánica nacional, El rincón de las vírgenes, Actas de Marusia, Algunas nubes, and Amores perros. His last Jean-Claude Carriere feature film was probably the Chilean-Mexican co- Screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere died on 8 February production Sanguinetti (2020). 2021 in Paris; he was 89 years of age. Carriere was Arturo Castro born in France in September Arturo Castro, a founding member of the popular Los 1931. His first novel was Hermanos Castro singing group, died on 13 March 2021. published in 1957, and he Arturo Castro Muñoz was born in December 1937 in then began to write and Veracruz. Arturo and his brothers Jorge and Javier first direct shorts, including performed as “Los Panchitos” while still children, then Heureux anniversaire later added their cousin Gualberto Castro and took the (1962), for which he (and Pierre Etaix) won an Academy name “Los Hermanos Castro.” The group was very THE MEXICAN FILM BULLETIN SPRING 2021 popular in the 1960s and appeared in the films Matar es (La seducción) and Felipe fácil, El zángano, El misterio de los Cazals (Los motivos de hongos alucinantes, and Cómo pescar Luz), before turning to marido. Los Hermanos Castros later directing telenovelas broke up (for a time—they eventually (although he continued to reunited and continued performing) and act as well). Arturo had a solo career as a singer and television host. He was also a prolific Marissa Garrido composer whose works were recorded by many other Marissa Garrido, one of the most successful and artists. prolific telenovela writers in Mexico, died on 8 January 2021 Josefina Echánove of complications from COV-19; Actress Josefina Echánove died on 29 December 2020 she was 95 years old. Marissa at the age of 93. Although born in New York in July Garrido Arozamena born in 1928 as Josefina Rojas Hudson, Echánove grew up in Mexico City in May 1926; her Guanajuato and was originally a dancer, but began acting father was a Chilean composer in films and on television in the 1970s. Her films and her mother was an actress, one of the daughters of included Balún canán, Xoxontla, El secreto de Romelia, actor Eduardo Arozamena. Garrido began writing and Serpientes y escaleras, as well as international films radionovelas in 1949, and switched to telenovelas when and co-productions like Perdita Durango, Missing and that format became popular in the late 1950s. She is Old Gringo. Echánove was nominated twice for Arieles. survived by 3 children, one of whom (Mario Sauret) is a Josefina Echánove had 3 film and TV actor. children: actor Alonso Echánove, singer María del Jaime Garza Sol (Marisol de las Mercedes Actor Jaime Garza passed Echánove), and journalist away on 14 May 2021 of a heart Peggy Echánove. Peggy attack. Jaime Francisco Garza Echánove, who had a small Alardín was born in Monterrey in role in Dos crímenes and did January 1954. He studied at some television documentary UNAM and became a work, passed away on 1 March 2021. professional actor in 1973. Garza appeared in films, plays, Sergio Esquivel fotonovelas, and on television, Singer and composer Sergio Esquivel died at age 74 on notably in many classic telenovelas such as “Simplemente 24 April 2021. Esquivel, born in María” and “Rosa salvaje.” His films included Canoa, Yucatán, was a prolific composer of Naná, Los hermanos del viento, and Tiempo de lobos. songs that would be recorded by In recent years Garza had suffered complications from José José, Lupita D’Alessio, diabetes, including a stroke and the amputation of one leg. Armando Manzanero, and others. His first big hit, “Alguien vendrá,” Ricardo González “Cepellín” was used in Sueño de amor (1971), Ricardo González Gutiérrez, better known as the starring José José, and his songs can clown “Cepillín,” died be heard in other films including Santo en la frontera del on 8 March 2021; he terror. was 75 years old. González, born in José Ángel García Monterrey in February José Ángel García Huerta, a director, actor, and the 1946, studied dentistry father of Gael García Bernal, passed away on 22 January and wore clown 2021. García was born in Michoacán in 1950 (some makeup to make his sources list his age at time of death as 62, which doesn’t young patients less match this), and began working as an actor in the early anxious. This led to 1980s. He appeared in films directed by Arturo Ripstein public appearances 2 THE MEXICAN FILM BULLETIN SPRING 2021 and finally a television show in Monterrey that ran from (1962). Over the next decade Leblanc appeared in 1971 to 1977. Relocating to Mexico City, Cepellín had numerous films produced in Argentina, Mexico, and his own program on Televisa for 3 years, and would have elsewhere (often co-productions). She also did some other shows later; he also performed in his own circus stage and television from 1982-2006, and recorded numerous albums. work, retiring from Cepellín starred in the Mexican-Spanish co- the screen after production Milagro en el circo (1978), and later appeared Furia en la isla in Las guerreras del amor (aka La corneta de mi general, (1978), although 1988). He was also the subject of the 1980 documentary she made an Mientras haya niños habra payasos. appearance in the experimental art Lucía Guilmáin film Standard (1989). Actress Lucía Guilmáin died on 15 February 2021 of complications from COVID-19. Some sources indicate Because her films were often she was born in January 1938 which would have made her 83 years old when she sexy and included nudity, a number of them were dubbed died, but her brother, actor into English and released under titles such as Love Juan Ferrara, said she Hunger, Violated Love, and The Pink Pussy: Where Sin would have been 79 in Lives. Ironically, Leblanc’s nude scenes were often cut August. for domestic release in Mexico. Lucía Gutiérrez Puerta, her real name, was the Armando Manzanero daughter of actress Ofelia Singer and composer Armando Manzanero died on 28 Guilmáin (her sister Esther December 2020; he had been suffering from COVID-19. Guilmáin is also an Armando Manzanero Canché actress) and made her professional acting debut in 1960. was born in Mérida, Yucatán in She made a number of appearances in small roles in December 1935 and began 1960s, but spent much of her career on the stage and on composing at an early age: he television. Her last feature film appearance was probably eventually wrote more than 600 Más negro que la noche (2014). songs. Dozens of Manzanero’s compositions were used in films; Roberto Hernández Vázquez he was nominated for Best Music Producer Roberto Hernández Vázquez died on 9 Theme or Song Arieles twice (Juego limpio and Alta tensión). January 2021 of complications from COVID-19. Hernández began He made a handful of acting appearances, notably Somos novios in the 1960s and the two “Cándido Pérez” working as a production assistant at Televisa and in 1993 was promoted theatrical features in the early 1990s.