On March 11, 1922, into a humble Madrid family was born José Luis López Vazquez who would become one of the most relevant actors in Spanish cinema. Jose Sacristán is the narrator in this journey that covers the 87 years of the actor's life , in which the testimonies of family members, admirers are added as well as prestigious colleagues , such as : Mónica Randall, Miguel Rellán , Antonio Resines , José Sacristán , Carlos Saura , Rafael Azcona, Pepe Viyuela and Julieta Serrano . Accompanied by his best performances and never-before-seen archival material, the reasons for his enormous success and the relation between his unique personality and his unmistakable way of performing are explored.
An intimate portrait to remember a shy, lonely, meticulous and extremely cultured man and his personal and masterful way of interpreting throughout more than 60 years of theater , cinema and television . He was a nice stage actor, cartoonist, costume designer and scenographer . Vazquez was assistant director to Pío Ballesteros and Enrique Herreros and in 1946 he made his debut as an actor with the play El anticuario, at the María Guerrero Theater . His film career began in 1951. He was part of the Conchita Montes and Alberto Closas companies.
In the cinema, he initially played comic roles , being discovered by Luis Garcia Berlanga with whom he performed fundamental movies as ¨Novio a la vista¨, ¨Placido¨, ¨El Jueves Milagro¨, ¨El Verdugo¨, ¨Patrimonio Nacional¨ trilogy and Marco Ferreri with ¨El Pisito¨. He formed an attractive film couple with Alberto Closas in ¨Usted puede ser un asesino¨, ¨Una gran señora¨, ¨La gran familia" , "La familia y uno más" , and ¨La familia bien gracias¨. And partnering with Gracita Morales, forming a popular duo in films as ¨Operacion Mata-hari¨, ¨Operación Cabaretera¨, ¨Sor Citroen¨, ¨Un vampiro para dos¨, ¨Los Palomos¨, but around the sixties he began to act in dramatic films and came to appear in more than 200 feature films, of which he shot several a year: in 1971 he appeared as an actor in no less than eleven films. Most of them are standard comedies signed by the prolific directors José María Forqué with ¨Atraco a las tres¨, Pedro Lazaga and Mariano Ozores, but other times they are larger works for serious directors, such as Carlos Saura with ¨Peppermint Frappe¨, ¨El jardin de las delicias¨, ¨La Prima Angelica¨, Jaime de Armiñán with his essential role in ¨Mi querida señorita¨, Manuel Gutierrez Aragón with ¨Habla Mudita¨ , Pedro Olea with two essential films of his overlong career : "El Bosque del Lobo" and "No es bueno que el hombre esté solo" that co-starred Carmen Sevilla , Antonio Mercero , Mario Camus, Juan Antonio Bardem, and , of course , Luis García Berlanga.
And he even worked for Hollywood in ¨Viajes con mi tia¨ by the great George Cukor . In fact , Cukor tried to take him to Hollywood, although López Vázquez preferred to stay in Spain. In 1971 he participated in ¨Las Petroleras ¨, together with two of the sex symbols of European cinema : Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale. There's a lot of stock footage in this brilliant documentary, from the successful ¨Atraco a las tres¨ by José Maria Forqué , ¨Un Millón en la basura¨ by Forqué , ¨El Monosabio¨ by Ray Rivas , ¨Se vende un tranvía" by Juan Estelrich, and , the considered to be the best short of all time : ¨La Cabina¨ by Antonio Mercero , which won an Emmy in 1973 and is deemed today a classic of the horror genre.
His memorial service was celebrated at the María Guerrero theater in Madrid, the same in which he debuted in 1940, at the age of eighteen. This good documentary was well and professionally directed by Roberto J. Oltra.
