Federico Luppi

Federico José Luppi (Ramallo, Buenos Aires, February 23, 1936-Buenos Aires, October 20, 2017), cited as Federico Luppi, was a first Argentine actor. He was one of the most recognized Argentine actors both in his country and abroad due to an extensive career in film and television that led him to work in Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Peru, Chile and Spain. Throughout his career he won numerous awards, including a Silver Shell at the San Sebastian Festival as well as six Silver Condor Awards from the Association of Cinematographic Chroniclers of Argentina and two nominations at the Goya Awards in Spain., among others.

Luppi was one of the most representative names in Spanish-speaking cinema, with outstanding films that have become classics, such as El romance del Aniceto y la Francisca (1967), La Rebel Patagonia (1973), Time for Revenge (1981), Cronos (1992), A Place in the World (1992), Sol de otoño (1996), Nobody will talk about us when we have died (1996), Martín (Hache) (1997), < i>The Devil's Backbone (2001), Phase 7 (2010) and Four of Cups (2012). Furthermore, he worked with internationally recognized directors such as Guillermo del Toro, Leonardo Favio, Raúl de la Torre, Pablo Yotich, Juan José Campanella and Adolfo Aristarain.

Biography

Early Years

Luppi was born into a modest family of Italian descent. Like many other actors, he went through various jobs before trying his hand at the theater. His initial vocation was art, but before dedicating himself to it, he worked as a butcher in a refrigerator, an insurance broker and a bank clerk. However, Luppi preferred to draw. He enrolled in Fine Arts to study sculpture, but dropped out soon after, later beginning his acting career.

Career

His first film was Pajarito Gómez (1965), and his film consecration (the acting genre in which he has had more continuity) came about thanks to the film The romance of Aniceto and the Francisca, by Leonardo Favio.

Given with a voice as powerful as her screen presence, Luppi made all her characters believable and was convincing in the most temperamental expressions, as in the Spanish thriller Nobody will talk about us when we are dead.

In addition to his collaboration with Favio, he is recognized for his leading roles in the classic films by Argentine director Adolfo Aristarain: Tiempo de revancha (1981), Last days of the victim (1982), Sweet Silver (1982), The Arrangement (1983), A Place in the World (1992) and Common Places (2002). He was also directed by Fernando Ayala in six films: Triangle of Four (1975), Sweet Silver (1982), The Arrangement (1983), Passengers of a Nightmare (1984), Overdose (1986) and The Year of the Rabbit (1987).

Luppi was a frequent collaborator of Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, with whom he worked on three films: Cronos (also known as The Invention of Cronos), The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth.

Holds the record for being the Argentine actor with the most Silver Condor Awards for best actor, which he won six times.

After becoming one of the most internationally prestigious Argentine actors and starring in several Argentine films, he settled in Spain in 2001, angered by the implementation of the corralito,^{[ citation required]} shortly before the Argentine political crisis that ended with the resignation of President Fernando de la Rúa.

In Spain

Luppi had obtained Spanish citizenship by naturalization letter. He participated in important achievements; he worked in television series and was even the protagonist of The Guide to the Hermitage in 2008, after ten years without doing theater work.

He tried his luck as a director, with the Spanish-produced film Pasos. For this film, the actresses Ana Fernández and Susana Hornos won the awards for Best Actress at the Villaverde Ibero-American Festival and Revelation Actress at the Toulouse Cinespaña Festival (France)., respectively.

Last years

Since the mid-2000s, Luppi has participated as a supporting actor in several Argentine television series, such as El pacto and En terapia.

His last film performance was on the set of the film Necronomicon: The Book of Hell, by Marcelo Shapces, where he played the co-star.

A few months before he died, he confessed that he was in financial difficulties: "I make it to the end of the month...if I do". His death found him when he tried to return to work and present himself with "Las últimas lunas", a play that was at the same time a meditation on life and old age.

Personal life

He was married between the ages of 23 and 29, he had a son and a daughter in that marriage. He had a ten-year relationship with the actress Haydée Padilla, who accused him of exercising physical and psychological violence against her, both in the domestic environment as well as in public. He had another son with the Uruguayan actress Brenda Accinelli, who did not receive alimony. In 2003 he married the Spanish actress Susana Hornos.

His son, Gustavo Luppi and his grandson (Gustavo's son) Juan Luppi followed in the same footsteps. They are both actors. Juan resides in Spain where he has worked in film and television.

Father and son, in July 2019 presented together Men and Mice, by John Steinbeck, a work that emerged from a novel by the author himself, which 80 years after its premiere in the United States and after its Broadway revival (2014) arrived in Buenos Aires, in a version by Lisandro Fiks, starring the son and grandson of Federico.

Federico Luppi died at the age of 81, in the early hours of October 20, 2017, at the Favaloro Foundation in Buenos Aires, where he had been admitted a few days earlier and was scheduled to undergo treatment for complications arising from having been had surgery for a clot in his head a few months earlier, due to a fall he suffered in his own home and hitting his bedroom table. His mortal remains are in the Chacarita Cemetery in the Argentine capital.

Filmography

As an actor

As director

Federico Luppi on the role of Facon Grande The rebellious Patagonia (1974)

• Steps (2005)

Television

Next to the actor Julio de Grazia, in the film Sweet silver (1982)

Awards and nominations

San Sebastian International Film Festival

Silver Condor Awards

Goya Awards

Sitges Film Festival

Other awards

• Huelva City Award in 2000 at the Ibero-American Film Festival in Huelva.
• Konex Award - Diploma to Merit 2001 in the discipline Actor de Cine.
• Best actor with Ulysses Dumont Rosaryasinos at the 2001 Mar del Plata International Film Festival.
• Best actor by Cronos, in Fantasporto, the International Fantastic Film Festival of Portugal, in 1993.
• Konex Award - Diploma to Merit 1991 in the discipline Actor Dramatic Radio and TV.
• Konex Award - Diploma to Merit 1981 in the Actor Dramatic Film and Theatre discipline.
• In 2009 the Association of Film Chronicles of Argentina presented the Silver Condor Award to the trajectory.
• Premio Martín Fierro 2009: Best special participation in fiction by Deal with me..