López Tarso, Ignacio

(Ignacio López López)

(1925 - )

   probably the preeminent actor in Mexico of the past forty years, Ignacio López Tarso was born in Mexico City but grew up in Guadalajara. After a stint in the army, López Tarso went to the United States as a "bracero" but broke his back while working in a orange grove and returned to Mexico, where he was bedridden for a year. During that time he read voraciously and upon his recovery he enrolled in the acting school of the Instituto de Bellas Artes. He quickly rose to prominence as a stage actor, and made his first film in 1955 (Chilam Balam). Since then, López Tarso has worked incessantly (it seems) on TV, the stage, and in the movies. He won a Best Actor Ariel for La rosa blanca (although the film was made in 1961, it was suppressed for more than a decade, and thus López Tarso didn't get his award until 1973, after it was finally released and the Arieles had been reinstated); he was also nominated for Best Actor Arieles for El profeta Mimí and Rapiña.