Celebrity Biographies
Montserrat Carulla
He participated in more than 90 plays, in series and feature films such as “El orfanato”. The actress Montserrat Carulla passed away on November 24, 2020, in Barcelona, at the age of 90. “She had been suffering from heart problems for a long time,” she declared at the time of her death, her daughter, the also prestigious actress Vicky Peña. “She was a beloved woman and we know that she has had a beautiful, fantastic life, doing her profession in an extraordinary way and enjoying it a lot. She has had friends, family always by her side, as a mother she loved us and protected us a lot. We believe that She has been very happy and loved. Within the sadness, we believe that she has had a full life.”
Born in Barcelona on September 19, 1930, Montserrat Carulla i Ventura began to be interested in theater from a very young age, so after joining various amateur groups, she studied acting courses at the Barcelona Theater Institute. Starting in the 1960s, she achieved success on stage with titles such as “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, “El caballero de Olmedo” by Lope de Vega, or “Revolta de bruixes” by Benet i Jornet. “Dedicating myself to the theater was like opening a window and noticing a new air in my face. The theater gave me confidence, because I was shy and had dyslexia, and I overcame all that thanks to the theater,” she recalled in an interview.
On television, Montserrat Carulla worked on prestigious series on TVE and TV3. In the cinema, she made her big debut, with the masterful performance of Rosario, daughter of the puppeteer in the classic Surcos . She also intervened in titles such as Family life , Sex change , Companys, process in Catalonia , Your name poisons my dreams or Barcelona, winter night . She is mostly remembered as Benigna, the social worker who visits the protagonist in The Orphanage .
Separated from Felipe Peña , with whom she was the mother of the aforementioned Vicky Peña and the theater director and playwright Roger Peña, Montserrat Carulla joined Manuel Maynés. In 1995 he received the Cruz de Sant Jordi Award, in 1999 the Gold Medal for Artistic Merit and in 2013 the Gaudí de Honor. In 2014 he decided to retire permanently with a role in a play by his son Roger, “Iaia!”, which he performed at the Teatro Romea in Barcelona.
“I hope to be remembered as a good theater worker and as an actress who has always looked for the sincerity of the character,” said the actress when she was about to retire.