Alberto Olmedo
Alberto Orlando Olmedo, nicknamed the Black (Rosario, Santa Fe, August 24, 1933-Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, March 5, 1988), was an Argentine actor and comedian, popularly considered one of the most important capocomics in the history of the show in his country, for his outstanding work on television, film, and theater.
In his films he also worked making a memorable duet with Jorge Porcel after working together on the television and film program Operación Ja-Já.
After his death, he began to be considered a cult humorist, and tributes are held in his hometown and the rest of Argentina.
Biography
Childhood and youth
Alberto Orlando Olmedo was born on August 24, 1933 in the city of Rosario and lived throughout his childhood and adolescence with his mother, Matilde Olmedo, at 2765 Tucumán street in the then Pichincha neighborhood of said city, called in the Alberto Olmedo, where he spent his childhood and youth at the Velocidad y Resistencia club, which was around his house.
At the age of six, in addition to attending the Juan F. Seguí School no.
In 1947, through Salvador Chita Naón, he joined the class of the La Comedia theater. The following year, with his friend Osvaldo Martínez, he joined the First Artistic Gymnastics Group at Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys in Rosario. At that time he also participated in a vocational artistic group that works in the Asturian Center: La Troupe Juvenil Asturiana.
In 1951, as part of the numbers of La Troupe, he formed (together with Antonio Ruiz Viñas) the duo Toño-Olmedo. Now professionals, the couple performs in various shows, including Gitanerías, directed by Juanito Belmonte. By the end of 1954 he decided to travel to Buenos Aires to try his luck.
Arrival in Buenos Aires and beginning of his artistic career
In May 1955, he joined Channel 7 as an operator, in the city of Buenos Aires through references from his friend Pancho Guerrero. At the New Year's Eve dinner where the authorities and the channel's staff meet, Olmedo performs a formidable improvisation and Julio Bringuer Ayala, the station's controller, offers him to work as an actor. A week after dinner, he debuted on La Troupe de TV , a program directed by Pancho Guerrero, in which María Esther Gamas, Noemí Laserre, Tincho Zabala and Rodolfo Crespi, among others, work. He begins to do monologues and small sketches in Jean Cartier's magazine , where “The Professor of Announcers” appears. At the same time he participates in Medianoche en Buenos Aires and Sonrisas y melodas .
In 1957, producer Julio Moller offered him the lead in a children's series on Saturdays at noon and Joe Bazooka was born. The program lasts three years, but Olmedo does not stop working as a technician. On March 12, 1958, he married Judith Jaroslavsky and on December 3 of the same year, his first child, Fernando, was born. On August 20, 1959, the film Gringalet , by Rubén W. Cavallotti, was released, in which he debuted as a film actor playing a supporting role.
In 1960 he started on Channel 9 El Capitán Piluso, his first great success, together with Coquito (Humberto Ortiz). The cycle that lasts just over three years in that station. In 1965 the program was broadcast for one year on Channel 7 and from 1967 it was presented for two years on Channel 2 in La Plata. Marcelo, his second son, was born on March 19, 1962. At the end of March 1964, he joined the cast of Operación Ja-Já, a program by Gerardo and Hugo Sofovich on Channel 11. That same day, Javier Portales and María Rosa Fugazot made their debut.
On July 26, 1964, their third child, Mariano, was born. In October 1964 Olmedo separated from his first wife. In January 1965 he began the program A summer with Olmedo , where he was once again the protagonist of a cycle, directed by Gerardo and Hugo Sofovich.
On September 23, 1967, he married Tita Russ. On July 28 of the following year, Javier, her fourth child, was born.
In Operation Ja-Ha the characters Rucucu and Yéneral González are born. At the same time, Olmedo appeared sporadically in another Sofovich series: Vivir es una comedia, also broadcast on Channel 11.
In 1969, he participated in El botón, on Channel 9, and also presented Domingos de teatro porteño, performing some special performances on Domingos de mi ciudad.
In January 1970, he hosted the program El Test de las familias that was broadcast on Channel 9. On January 14, his only daughter, Sabrina, was born. On December 3, he returns to Channel 11 with Las 36 horas de Olmedo , a broadcast to benefit the Casa Cuna and the Argerich Hospital, where he breaks the record for permanence on camera (record held to date).
In 1972 the cycles El chupete began, with books by Juan Carlos Mesa and Jorge Basurto, and Fresco y Batata (with reference to fresh cheese and sweet potato sweet potato).) that together constitute a fast, simple, nutritious and cheap popular dessert, while "fresco" refers to a rogue (Olmedo's character) and "sweet potato" alludes to someone shy or clumsy, a character played by Jorge Porcel, both on Channel 13. He stars with Susana Brunetti in the musical comedy Promises, promises, at the Odeón theater.
On March 22, 1973, The Knights of the Round Bed was released, the first of the films filmed for the Aries label, directed by Gerardo Sofovich.
In 1974 he starred in Alberto Vilar, the indomitable, with a book by Víctor Sueiro, on Channel 13.
The following year he made his debut in the magazine theater, at the Teatro Maipo, together with José Marrone. In the same theater he appears in his first magazine with Jorge Porcel, directed by Gerardo Sofovich.
On May 4, 1976, in the first program of the year of El Chupete, with Coquito Ortiz and Oscar Viale as scriptwriters (chosen by Olmedo) the false news of the "physical disappearance » from Olmedo. A week later, as a consequence of this joke, devised by Viale (with reference to the murders that the military in power was committing), they lift the cycle and fire Coquito Ortiz and Oscar Viale. As a result of this incident, Olmedo was "erased" from television for two years. Likewise, the event caused some resignations in the leadership of the channel and the dismissal of the announcer Jorge Nicolau, who read the false news on the air.
In 1977, he premiered the film The tourists want war where his character's name is Alberto Mautone, in homage to his paternal surname. In 1978 he returned to direct the cycle Olmedo ’78 on Channel 11.
In 1980, he starred with Susana Giménez in the series Alberto y Susana, on Channel 13, with books by Hugo Moser, Víctor Sueiro and Humberto Ortiz. On June 19, Surgeons get out of hand, the first film by the quartet Alberto Olmedo, Susana Giménez, Jorge Porcel and Moria Casán, directed by Hugo Sofovich, premieres.
In 1981 he obtained a Diploma of Merit from the Konex Awards, awarded by the Konex Foundation, as one of the most important Variety Actors in Argentine history.
The “Olmedo Fever”
In 1981 he began on Channel 11, under the direction of Hugo Sofovich, what would be his last and most successful television program: No toca botón; and premiered at the Teatro Metropolitan, together with Porcel, Susana Giménez and Moria Casán, The Superstars Magazine, also by Hugo Sofovich. In July of that year he separated from his second wife. In the summer of 1982 in Mar del Plata, the successful lead quartet of the previous year was repeated again in the play Seguimos rompiendo las olas.
In the 1983 show No Toca Button, two successful characters are born: Lucy (a satire of Tootsie) and Nene. In the latter, Olmedo began to make his famous "goats" on the air (advertisements within the sketches ).
In 1984 the character «Chiquito Reyes, double risk» was born in No toca botón.
During the 1985 summer season in Mar del Plata, he starred in the comedy El bicho tuvo la culpa, directed by Hugo Sofovich. This year the cycle of No toca botón begins with the burning of Rucucu's costume live and the presence of Enrique Pinti, Juan Carlos Altavista, Luis Brandoni and Susana Traverso. The Dictator of Costa Pobre, The Smurf, The Psychoanalyst and the new Chiquito Reyes are born, this time as a cuckold boyfriend.
In 1985 the film Look at me at the popcorn was released and in its presentation you can see several shots of the City of Mar del Plata filmed from a moving vehicle. Near the end of it, this vehicle, which had been circulating along Colón Avenue, turns into Boulevard Marítimo Peralta Ramos, showing a large plan of the Maral 39 building (where Olmedo would die in the future).
In the summer of 1986 he presented The bug was to blame in Villa Carlos Paz. This is the year of "El manosanta", "Álvarez y Borges" and "El mucamo Perkins". The Olmedo Fever begins. In September he begins a cycle of presentations at the Michelángelo restaurant, together with Javier Portales, Beatriz Salomón, Divina Gloria and Alfonso Pícaro; in addition to the singer Guillermo Guido and the groups Botton Tap and Caviar. On December 18, he debuted with the play El Negro no puede at the Neptuno theater in Mar del Plata, accompanied as almost always by Javier Portales and César Bertrand.
During the southern summer of 1987, the play broke the all-time record for public attendance at the theater, with 119,877 spectators. That year he won the Estrella de Mar award. The program No toca botón went to Channel 9 and the character "Rogelio Roldán, chief of cadets" was born. In May, on the television program in the sketch of Borges and Álvarez, he put on a cap with the colors of the Rosario Central club, and took a flag of the Club Atlético Newells Old Boys from his pocket to cover his torso These and others were details that characterized Olmedo as a true Rosario who never forgot his hometown or its folklore.
At the beginning of 1988, he starred in the play We were so poor in Mar del Plata, directed by Hugo Sofovich. On March 3 — two days before his death — his latest film, Peculiar Attraction , opens.
The last works and the tragic end
During the summer of 1988 in Mar del Plata, he premiered the play We were so poor and filmed, together with Jorge Porcel, the film Atracción peculiar, which premiered on March 3rd. However, Olmedo never got to see her since two days later, on the morning of March 5, after a night of many excesses with his partner Nancy Herrera, he fell from the balcony of his apartment on the 11th floor of the Maral building. 39, and passed away instantly at the age of 54. Although various hypotheses were said about this tragedy, the only one present at that moment was his partner, who on more than one occasion declared that it was just an accident, but there are also versions where they state that Olmedo committed suicide.
However, the main hypothesis[citation needed] about his death was that he was drugged and somewhat drunk, and that, playing under the influence of alcohol or drugs, climbed dangerously over the balcony railing and when he lost his balance he fell towards the outside. He was quickly held by Nancy Herrera by his wrists, but she could not hold him for long to save him, so he fell into the void and, even as he fell on the street, he was holding a small pink polyethylene bag that supposedly contained the drug that Alberto had consumed before. Before he fell, he had on a shirt that they later took off to give him first aid, jeans, and brown jean boots.
Curiously, in some scenes of Olmedo's films the actor is seen on a balcony, as in The Knights of the Round Bed (1973), Shared Apartment (1980), The Kings of the Sablazo (1984), Gallery of Terror (1987) and also in one of the scenes of Peculiar Attraction (1988), Olmedo and Porcel, walk along the cornice of a building in Mar del Plata (the Provincial Hotel) and both show their fear of falling into the void.
His mother, Matilde de Olmedo, at the time of her son's death was visiting her daughter in the province of La Rioja. On March 6, 1988, after hearing the news of Alberto's death, she suffered a heart attack at the Aeroparque Metropolitano, at the age of 79. Immediately, she was transferred to the guard of the Fernández Municipal Hospital, where she finally died.
After Olmedo's death, Jorge Porcel, his partner par excellence in cinema, starred in just one more film in Argentina (called El profesor punk and released just 4 months after the tragedy, in July 1988). This film shows a performance by its protagonist that is more restrained and sober than usual (although always comical), and at the end it has a noble dedication to his partner and friend, with the image of the last scene they shared, in Peculiar Attraction . Many of those close to him[who?] attribute the sudden and radical change in the life of Porcel (who finally settled in Miami and converted to evangelism) to the fact that this he was deeply moved and scarred by his friend's tragedy.
Memories and tributes
His untimely death caused deep sadness among his followers. After his death, he began to be considered a cult humorist, and tributes were held in his native Rosario and in the rest of the country.
In Rosario, where he was born and spent his first years, he is honored with a bronze sculpture. It (see photo) refers to the famous sketch that he starred in with Javier Portales, "Álvarez y Borges", and is visited by a large number of tourists who cannot avoid taking pictures in front of the actor's sculpture.
The Argentine musician Fito Páez, also born in the city of Rosario, dedicated an emotional song called «Tema de Piluso» to her, which belongs to the album Circo Beat, released in 1994. It also refers to the comic in other songs, for example, in Tercer Mundo you can hear a dialogue between «Álvarez» and the «Manosanta» belonging to the movie El manosanta está cargado, as well as in his song «Instant- taneas» from the album La la la .
In 2007, in the framework of the program El Gen Argentino, in which the public voted freely to choose the most outstanding Argentine in history, Alberto Olmedo was chosen as a finalist, among the five most outstanding Argentines prominent throughout history along with José de San Martín, Ernesto Che Guevara, René Favaloro and Juan Manuel Fangio.
In 2009, his son Marcelo Olmedo wrote a book, El Negro Olmedo, my old man, where he tells unknown anecdotes about his friends, women, family and the public.
In Buenos Aires, a low brick column, at Avenida Corrientes 1753, the work of José Martínez, had on its upper part the traces left in cement by the actor's hands. They were stolen in 2009 and in an act of reparation a new one was placed in August of that same year. The plaque at the bottom reads:
What do I want me to keep? A statue at my hands on Corrientes Street to look at and say, "Chau, Negro". Nothing more.Alberto Olmedo
In Mar del Plata, a few meters from the building of the fatal accident, there is a bronze monument that remembers him, a faithful portrait made by the sculptress Elizabeth Eichhorn, an obligatory walk for tourists who meet again to be photographed together with his smile and his characteristic attitude. In 2008 the monument was completely destroyed by vandals. It was rebuilt and inaugurated in March 2009.
In November 2011, a statue by the sculptor Fernando Pugliese was inaugurated in the city of Buenos Aires, at the corner of Corrientes and Uruguay streets, where Olmedo and Javier Portales are in their roles as Borges and Álvarez, sitting in an armchair.
Performance
It was characterized by humor for adults, with jokes generally loaded with double meanings. While acting, he sometimes used to speak in Rosarigasino, when he didn't want another of the actors to find out something. He was characterized by using the art of improvisation and was a great transgressor of television codes, for example, he often did not follow the scripts, he tried to make the other actors laugh, and he broke the fourth wall, for example, making fun of the viewers. or going behind the scenes.
Both on television, film and theater, he worked with the greatest capocomics and the most important vedettes of his time: Jorge Porcel, with whom he formed the most important humorous duo in Argentine entertainment; Tato Bores; Fidel Pintos; Javier Portales; Moria Casan; Susana Giménez or Graciela Alfano. It was also directed by the most important exponents of picaresque humor: Gerardo Sofovich, Hugo Sofovich, Enrique Carreras, Hugo Moser, etc.
Their characters
His characters, even today, are still remembered:
- Captain Piluso.
- Petete Garcia, the Wolf
- The Handsanta.
- The dictator of Costa Pobre.
- Little Kings.
- Rogelio Roldán.
- Rucucu.
- The nephew of Borges, from the sketch of "Álvarez y Borges" (along with Javier Portales).
- The sketch of "Grotowski and Stanislavski" (before the previous one).
- José Refrán
- The Grand Huidini (with Marcos Zucker)
- The Cavernario Cordobés
- The "Black Cave" Cordobes (along with Eddie Pequenino)
- Staff Perez.
- The baby (along with Susana Traverso)
- The English student (along with Susana Giménez)
- The Pitufo.
- The Psychoanalyst.
- Major Perkins.
- The handsome Piolín
- El Yeneral González
- The firefighter (end of Fidel Pintos hairdressing)
- Nicky Longo (car sweeper)
Phrases
- And if you don't have faith!
- From here!
- We were so poor!
- Whenever he "came" stopped.
- Ruu cuu!
- No button!
- You brought me the baby?
- Putting on was the goose!
- Adianchi, adianchi!
- If I "go" to do, "go" to do good...
- Savoy!
- Crazy yooooooo?
- "I'm Pitufo, but not Bolufo."
- "This one, I break the blockade."
- The devil took over.
- There is cash!!!
- That's what there is.
Works in film and TV
Filmography
Period 1959-1970
- Gringalet (1959).
- A cage has no secrets (1962)
- Paper boats (1963)
- The Adventures of Captain Piluso (1963)
- The inheritance (1964)
- Ritmo new and old wave (1965)
- A Summer Night Trip (1965)
- Two quixotes on wheels (1966)
- Hotel accommodation (1966)
- The gloton (including 1967)
- Scan it in the family (1967)
- Villa Honey is burning (1968)
- Pyola Flower (1969)
- Debutants in Love (1969)
- The man of the year (1970)
Argentine Cinematographic Aries Period
- The Knights of the Round Bed (1973)
- Doctors prefer naked. (1973)
- Vampires prefer gorditos (1974) (Cameo)
- You have to break the routine. (1974)
- My girlfriend the... (1975)
- Husbands on holiday (1975)
- Men just think about it. (1976)
- Enough women (1977)
- Tourists want war (1977)
- El Gordo Catástrofe (1977) (Cameo)
- Photographer of ladies (1978)
- My wife is not my lady. (1978)
- Very close meetings with ladies of any kind (1978)
- Custodian of ladies (1979)
- Prick experts (1979)
- The king of the exhortations (1979)
- So there's no bed that can hold (1980) (Cameo)
- Surgeons are leaving their hands (1980)
- Shared Department (1980)
- Women are handsome. (1981)
- Lover for two (1981)
- I'll break your ratings. (1981)
- A peculiar stunt (1982)
- The indomitable cuffs (1982)
- The little ones have fun (1983)
- Aliens (1983)
- The Kings of the Sabbath (1984)
- Save whoever can (1984)
- Look at me. (1985)
- The hummingbirds have fun (1986)
- Rambito and Rambon, first mission (1986)
- The bombs on the attack (1987)
- Gallery of terror (1987)
- A peculiar attraction (1988)
Independent production
- Susana wants, the black one too! (1987)
Production of Argentina Sono Film
- The handle is loaded (1987)
TV shows
- Captain Piluso (1960-1981)
- A Osvaldo to the Beyond (1962) (participation)
- Operation Ja-Já / La Peluquería de Fidel (1963-1967)
- Fresco and Batata
- The button
- Alberto and Susana (1980)
- The Chupete (1972-1976)
- No button (1981-1987)
- A summer with Olmedo
- Olmedo 78 (1978)
- Olmedo 79 (1979)
- The 36 hours of Olmedo
- The Chupete (1973-1976)
Discography
- 1972: "The jokes that Alberto Olmedo and Fidel Pintos cannot tell on television" - Together with Fidel Pintos - MICROFON ARGENTINA S.R.L.
- 1973: "The jokes that Alberto Olmedo and Javier Portales cannot tell on television" - Together with Javier Portales - MICROFON ARGENTINA S.R.L.
- 1976: "Botoncitos de Zarzuelas" - Along with Fidel Pintos, Adolfo García Grau, Carmen Morales, María Rosa Fugazot and Jorge Porcel - MICROFON ARGENTINA S.R.L.
- 1976: "Captain Piluso" - RCA VICTOR
- 1976: "Captain Piluso - Piluso is good / In the Chascomus Lagoon" (Simple) - VICTOR RCA
- 1978: "Piluso - Pilutronónico" - RCA VICTOR
- 1980: "Pilusman"
- 1986: "Albero Olmedo and Los Manosanta" - EMI ODEON
- 1995: "El manoanta" - DISCOS PAMPA
- 2008: "Pilusman" - SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT ARGENTINA S.A.