Emilio Gutierrez Caba

Born in Valladolid, on September 26, 1942, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba comes from a family dedicated to acting, as he is the son of the actors Emilio Gutiérrez and Irene Caba Alba , while his older sisters, Irene and Julia, have also reached the success in the profession. “My family has been in business for 150 years. My great-grandfather Pascual Alba Llors was the first to dedicate himself to the theater in 1860”, comments the actor. A student at the illustrious San Isidro Institute in Madrid, Emilio already joined the theater group there. “Although he came from a family of actors, I was not so sure about dedicating myself to the theater. In the 50s, the theater was in a phase of intellectual depression and offered no incentives to a young person. I started after the military, ”says the actor.

In the end, he decided to follow in his family’s footsteps and made his first tour as a professional actor with the company of the famous Hungarian actress living in Spain Lilí Murati, and later played the protagonist in a production of “Peter Pan”. Later he formed his own theater company with María José Goyanes , and was one of the protagonists of “Olvida los tambores”, a text by Ana Diosdado that portrayed the different types of young people of the time.

Although Gutiérrez Caba has concentrated above all on his career in the theater, where he is a true myth, he has also been a prolific film actor, since he made his debut in 1963 with El llanero , a western by Jesús Franco . Basilio Martín Patino chose him as the protagonist of his first feature film, Nine letters to Berta , where he played Lorenzo, a guy who returns to Spain after having been in England, where he fell in love with Berta, the daughter of exiled parents who has not seen Spain. Through his letters, Lorenzo explains to Berta what her country is like. The film won the Silver Shell for best newcomer director in San Sebastián, and falls within the current called New Spanish Cinema.

Emilio Gutiérrez Caba was also one of the protagonists of La caza , another of the most emblematic films of Spanish cinema from the late 1960s, where he shared the screen with Ismael Merlo , Alfredo Mayo and José María Prada . He played Enrique, who meets with the friends of his brother-in-law (Alfredo Mayo) to enjoy a day of hunting in a semi-desert preserve. This metaphorical analysis of Spain at the time marked the first collaboration between producer Elías Querejeta and Carlos Saura , who won the Silver Bear for best director in Berlin.

From then on, the actor shot many commercial films known as ‘Spanish’, such as Los midshipmen with Alfredo Landa and José Luis López Vázquez , ¿Qué hacemos con los hijos? together with Paco Martínez Soria , Los chicos del Preu with Karina, Marisol’s 4 weddings with Marisol, and above all Los embarazados , a delirious comedy in which Spanish men begin to remain in a state of good hope instead of women. At the same time, he lavishes himself on quality productions, especially in literary adaptations: The Hive , Werther ,Requiem for a Spanish peasant or The shadow of the cypress is long . He was also a convincing Saint John of the Cross in the illustrious Teresa de Jesús series , he intervened in Jaime Chávarri ‘s Bicycles are for the summer ,and he came to work with Pedro Almodóvar in ¿What have I done to deserve this!! .

He has embroidered secondary characters in La primera noche de mi vida and Goya en Bordeaux , although his most recognized role in recent years was the cynical neighbor, apparently educated but Machiavellian, in La comunidad , which earned him the Goya for best secondary, and the awards of the CEC and the Union of Actors in the same category. Shortly after he received a second Goya for El cielo abierto .

He has also triumphed on television, he did a great job as Sabino Fernández Campo in 23-F: The King’s Most Difficult Day and he has had the favor of the public in series like Javier no longer lives alone , Amar en tiempos revueltos and Gran Reserva .