Arturo Fernandez

Arturo Fernández Rodríguez was born on February 21, 1929, in Gijón, into a family with a long seafaring tradition. His father, a railway mechanic, had to go into exile at the end of the Civil War, for having held a union position on the Republican side, and could not return to his land until 18 years later. He was left solely in charge of his mother, who supported the family as she could, working in a store. To help, young Arturo drops out of school at the age of twelve, doing all sorts of jobs: electrician, tie seller and hair grower, even black market chocolate. Finally, he tries his luck in boxing fighting for two years in the ring with the nickname “El Tigre del Piles”.

But in 1950 he decided to travel to Madrid, they say that he was following a beautiful woman. Due to his economic difficulties, he accepts a job as an extra in a movie, realizing that he had possibilities as an actor; so he started in the trade by chance, his training being completely self-taught. After the occasional title without dialogues, Rafael Gil gave him small roles in his films  La señora de Fátima ,  La guerra de Dios  and  El beso de Judas .

Another decisive filmmaker in his career, Julio Coll , offered him his first leading roles in what were to be some of the best Spanish noir films, such as  Distrito Quinto , Los cuervos , In cold blood  and  A glass of whiskey . In his beginnings, he stood out in tough roles before becoming one of the essential leading men in the cinema at the end of the fifties and throughout the decade of the sixties with such popular films as  Jandro , La casa de la Troya , La lie tiene cabellos reds , Scale in Hi-Fi, Bay of Palma  or  The faithful infantry. She meets Gil again in  Rogelia , Currito de la Cruz  or  Camino del Rocío . In short, she shoots a large number of films, some of them enormously successful, being a couple with actresses such as Carmen Sevilla , Analía Gadé , Rocío Durcal , María Asquerino , Esperanza Roy , Amparo Muñoz or Rossana Podestà . She works with José María Forqué ( Marital Sins ) , Luis Martínez ( La viudita naviera ), Pedro Lazaga ( Novios 68  y You shall not desire your neighbor’s wife ), Tito Fernández ( A luxury within your reach ). With Antonio Drove he interprets the wonderful  Tocata y fuga de Lolita  considered at the time as the beginning of the so-called third way of Spanish cinema.

But above all, he developed an intense theatrical activity, after debuting with the Modesto Higueras Chamber Theater and Rehearsal, and after passing through such illustrious companies as those of Conchita Montes or Rafael Rivelles . He has starred in such prominent titles as Tennessee Williams ‘ “Sweet Bird of Youth” and Bernard Slade’s “Homage”, which premiered in 1980 at Madrid’s Teatro de la Comedia, ending up becoming a businessman, director and leading actor of his own company, with which he has been filling theaters for many years.

Although the scenarios almost completely displaced the cinema, in 1983 he obtained an enormous success with the feature film  Truhanes , by  Miguel Hermoso , where he embodies a sophisticated swindler who in prison makes good friends with a street pickpocket, played by Paco Rabal with the that exudes unbeatable chemistry. For this work he obtained the CEC medal for best actor. That same year he had another memorable role in  El crack 2  by  José Luis Garci , playing a “bad guy” full of irony. Ten years later, he would shoot a new version of  Truhanes with Rabal , in the form of a television series. On the small screen he also stars  in La casa de los lios  and Like the dog and the cat .

A born seducer, however, he has always led his love life with enormous discretion. Arturo Fernández was married between 1967 and 1978 to Isabel Sensat, with whom he had three children, to whom he feels very close. After the divorce, he got together with the lawyer Carmen Quesada. Educated, correct, very demanding of himself, always impeccable, he came to have the same tailor as Marcello Mastroianni . A great lover of good wine and good food, he did not trust teetotalers and vegetarians. “I don’t think they’ll have a good time.”

Tireless, already in his nonagenarian years, he continued to perform “High Seduction” on the stages of various Spanish cities.