Celebrity Biographies
Carlos Larranaga
Carlos Larrañaga’s health was delicate, and it was known that in early 2012 he had undergone surgery for a tumor. But that does not take away the penalty for the death on August 30 of the same year, who after undertaking “The strange journey” in cinema, has now signed up for the last trip, rest in peace.
Carlos Larrañaga belonged to a family of comedians through and through, and joined them on March 11, 1937 in Barcelona, during the Spanish Civil War. Her parents were theater actors Pedro Larrañaga and María Fernanda Ladrón de Guevara , and his older half-sister goes by the name of Amparo Rivelles . Later he would also marry women from the world of acting, marriages that would end in a breakup: María Luisa Merlo , with whom he had four children, one of them Pedro Merlo, husband of Maribel Verdú ; Maria Teresa Ortiz-Bau; Ana Diosdado ; and Ana Escribano.
With the baggage of the scene and the screen in the family, it is not surprising that Carlos Larrañaga made his debut at the age of four in Alma de Dios (Ignacio Iquino, 1941). As a teenager he can be seen in Pequeñeces ( Juan de Orduña , 1950), and as a young man in a Hollywood production shot in Spain, Pride and Passion ( Stanley Kramer , 1957), along with Cary Grant , Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren .
In theater, in the 60s, he did a lot of theater, works by Alfonso Paso , José María Pemán and Alejandro Casona, with the role of leading man. While in cinema he is just as prolific, be it with Luis Lucia and Marisol – An angel has arrived (1961)– or Antonio del Amo and Joselito – El pequeño colonel (1960)–, in Rafael Gil ‘s look at the rural world – Green Harvest (1960)–, or under the orders of Fernando Fernán Gómez in that wonderful black humor called El extraño viaje (1961). As if that were not enough, the small screen also frequented it in those years, with programs like “Novela” and “Estudio 1”.
Although if we have to talk about television and Carlos Larrañaga, we must mention his most popular series, the unforgettable Farmacia de guardia by Antonio Mercero , although without forgetting Los gozos y las sombras (1982), Trieso a Mariana Pineda (1984) and Señor mayor (1997).
He had a good relationship with José Luis Garci , which began with Las verdes prairies (1979), and which would continue years later with Tiovivo c. 1950 (2004), Light of Sunday (2007) and Blood of May (2008).