Celebrity Biographies
Chete Lera
In the 90s he became almost an icon of the best Spanish cinema of the new directors that were coming out at that time, due to his versatility and his characteristic deep, cascading voice. The actor Chete Lera died on May 19, 2022, at the age of 73, when his car fell off a fifty-meter drop in the municipality of Rincón de la Victoria in Malaga. He was the only occupant of the vehicle. “He came from taking a bath in the sea and the asphalt has taken one of the greatest actors this country has produced. I love you,” declared one of his brothers, the musician Joaquín Lera, who made the sad News.
Born in La Estrada (Pontevedra), on November 30, 1949, Ramón Mariano Fernández Lera – full name of Chete Lera – worked as a bank employee, to go on to study psychology and acting. He began his theatrical activity in 1978 in the Espacio Cero theater group, in productions of works such as “Asa Nisi Masa”, “Los carboneros” or “In front of the wall”. “At the age of 26 or 27 I had a stable job and a good salary, but I went through a personal and marital crisis. I decided to study psychology (…). I contacted a group that met on weekends to do readings, from which the group of Teatro Espacio Cero. What started as an excuse to occupy my free time became my main activity. I had finally found my place”, he recalled in an interview.
He made his film debut late, when he was already over forty, with Todo por la pasta , by Enrique Urbizu . Thanks to that title, Chete Lera became a highly sought after actor for the new Spanish filmmakers of the time, such as Fernando Léon de Aranoa , who made him one of the protagonists of Familia , and later played him in Barrio , Icíar Bollaín , who relied on him for Flores de otro mundo , Alejandro Amenábar , for whom he was the psychiatrist in Abre los ojos , and Julio Medem , who had him under his orders in The Red Squirrel. He also convinced a veteran, like Montxo Armendáriz , who recruited him for Secretos del corazón .
With the arrival of the 21st century, Chete Lera continues to appear regularly on screen, in films such as Concursante , Rodrigo Cortés ‘s debut , or Smoking Room , by JD Wallovits and Roger Gual . Despite everything, she never left the theater. “In the middle of the 25th century, when cars fly, there will be four romantics who will continue to go to the theater,” she once commented.
His last work on screen was in the series Mira what you have done , created by Berto Romero . Chete Lera was married to the also actress Miriam Montilla .