Shell velasco

The girl born in Valladolid on November 29, 1939 Concepción Velasco Varona was so clear about what she was going to do that she told her mother from a very young age ‘Mom, I want to be an artist.’ Said and done, she went to Madrid to study classical dance, and she made her debut as a dancer when she was almost a teenager in the Dance Corps of the Opera of La Coruña.

At the age of 15, she played a ‘bailaora’ in a brief intervention in La reina mora . In addition, she joined Manolo Caracol ‘s company and later as a vice-president in Celia Gámez ‘s, the queen of the magazine, who gave alternatives to other stars such as Esperanza Roy , Lina Morgan and Tony Leblanc .

It was precisely with Leblanc that she filmed her first great success on the screen (as Conchita Velasco), Las chicas de la Cruz Roja , a comedy about the picaresque of the time. With the same actor he formed a couple again in titles such as Valentine’s Day , The cheaters , Life without laughter , Love below zero , Julia and the Coelacanth , My wedding night , They knew too much , Today like yesterday , Those who play the piano , Once a year being a hippy doesn’t hurt and TV Stories. In this latest film, she interprets the song “La chica Ye-ye”, previously sung by Rosalía, although the actress’s version became one of the most popular tunes in Spain at the time.

She exploits the image of the ye-ye girl, representative of the modern and naughty young women of Spain at that time, in a series of films with Manolo Escobar , the image of the most traditional citizens. Alongside her, she stars in But… what country do we live in? , Almost public relations , Trial of skirts , In a place of the Manga and You owe me a dead man .

Although like most of his compatriots at the time, he only had the chance to take part in the lightest comic ‘Spanish’ like Las que tenen que servir , along with Alfredo Landa , in the 70s and 80s he focused his career on more serious roles, such as La colmena , Esquilache , Las largas vacaciones del 36 , Pim, pam, pum, fuego and Tormento , an adaptation of the novel by Benito Pérez Galdós , where she does one of her best jobs as an envious lady who abuses an orphan who serves as her assistant.

From the very beginning, Concha Velasco proved to be a hyperactive and hard-working woman, in such a way that she combines her numerous film jobs in the morning with her afternoon-night theatrical performances. It is on the stage that he has gained the greatest prestige, interpreting emblematic productions of works such as “Las arrecogías del beaterio de Santa María Egipciaca”, by José Martín Recuerda, at the Teatro de la Comedia, where he played the liberal heroine Mariana Pineda, “Filomena Marturano”, by Eduardo de Filippo (who starred in the 70s and much later in the new millennium), “Good night, mother”, with Mary Carrillo , and above all “I’ll get off in the next one, and you ?”, a work by Adolfo Marsillachin which he shared the stage with José Sacristán , and which was a phenomenon in the early 80s. He lavished himself in the musical, as he swept away with “Mom, I want to be an artist” and “Hello, Dolly”, where he played the famous role by Barbra Streisand .

She fell in love with one of her stage companions, the actor Paco Marsó, whom she married in 1976. She had a son with him, Paco, while Marsó raised Manuel, the artist’s son from a previous relationship, as her own and contributed the marriage to Diana Patricia, which he had had with a German woman. Although she had a series of disagreements with him that ended with her divorce, in 2005, Concha usually talks about him as the man in her life. “The most important part of my life begins when I meet Paco Marsó,” the artist commented after the death of her ex-husband in 2010. “If I hadn’t loved him so much, I wouldn’t have suffered with him.”

She was the muse of Antonio Gala , who wrote “Las manzanas del viernes” for her. Concha Velasco has incarnated other characters of the author, such as the protagonist of “Inés unbuttoned”, while in the cinema she was Palmira, in Más allá del jardín , the prototype of the disenchanted mature women in search of a new life, which obsess the author so much .

Concha Velasco still has time to become one of the most famous faces on the small screen in Spain. She was a regular actress of the mythical space “Estudio 1”, where she participated in works such as “Don Juan Tenorio” or “Una muchachita de Valladolid”. He presented TVE’s New Year’s Eve specials from 1985 to 1987, and has presented numerous programs such as “Viva el spectacle”, “Encantada de la vida”, “Querida Concha” and even “Sorpresa, sorpresa” replacing Isabel Gemio and “Neighborhood cinema”, when Carmen Sevilla has left it . She has not been bad at all in the field of series either, since she participated in Compañeros , Motivos personales ,

Her most remembered role on television is none other than Saint Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, in Teresa de Jesús , a legendary production directed by Josefina Molina , who captured the life of the founder of the Carmelites better than anyone.

Although she has talked about a possible retirement, Concha Velasco seems happy maintaining her usual intense work rhythm. In recent years, she fulfilled her dream of working with Luis García Berlanga in the failed Paris Timbuktu , and she has participated in titles such as Km. 0 , El oro de Moscú , Chuecatown , and Bienvenido a casa . Now in her seventies, she doesn’t stop watching TV, and if she had any free time left, she has swept the tables with the excellent “La vida por delante”, where she moved the respectable as a former Jewish prostitute who raises an Arab boy whom she has welcomed. “Where am I going to be better than working?”, she has commented herself. She is the aunt of the actress Manuela Velasco, which became very popular with [Rec] .