The Basque journalist and film critic Carlos Pumares Pardo, who became popular with the legendary radio program Polvo de Estrellas, died this Thursday at the age of 80, according to family sources and his own account on X. "Rest in peace, the greatest of the greats of cinema in Spain. He always was and from today will be stardust," appeared on the social network.
Pumares, one of the most renowned film critics, was also a screenwriter, appeared as an actor in some films and wrote books such as A Perfect Marriage and So Near and Far.
Born on September 29, 1943 in the Biscayan town of Portugalete, Pumares had a degree in Physical Sciences, but his professional career took other paths.
In the 1970s he wrote the scripts for the films La casa de las chivas (1972, León Klimovsky), Marriage Separation (1973, Angelino Fons), A forbidden woman (1974, José Luis Ruiz Marcos), The Stranger love of the vampires (1977, León Klimovsky) and the television series The Hotel of the Thousand and One Stars (1978-79, TVE), this one with Joaquín Parejo.
He worked as a film advisor for the program La Clave (1976-85, on RTVE; 1990-93, on Antena 3 TV), which was presented and directed by journalist José Luis Balbín.
A film served as an introduction to the topics that the guests then debated, with questions that the spectators asked by telephone towards the end of the space.
The program was novel because it allowed, for the first time on Spanish television, the vision of various conflicting points of view, with topics that until now were considered taboo (Opus Dei, NATO...).
In the early 80s he began presenting the program about the world of cinema on Antena 3 Radio, Polvo de Estrellas, which would later be brought to Antena 3 television and Onda Cero.
After the cancellation of the program on the Onda Cero network, Pumares collaborated on the Terra portal with a space called El monolito de Pumares. In it he gave answers to Internet users' questions about the world of cinema.
The space remained on the portal until the summer of 2004. Likewise, he collaborated as a guest on the program Crónicas marcianas until his disappearance in July 2005.
Pumares has done film criticism in the newspaper La Razón, presented on Radio Voz La salud natural, a daily space on natural medicine, maintains a blog to comment on news related to the world of cinema, and has been a collaborator and member of the morning show Sin ir further away (Aragón TV), in addition to having the weekly program Veo Cine on the channel Veo 7.
He appeared as an actor in FBI: Frikis Busca Incordiar (Javier Cárdenas, 2004) and in Torrente 3, el protector (Santiago Segura, 2005); and he signed the scripts for the films La casa de las chivas (León Klimovsky, 1972), Marital Separation (Angelino Fons, 1973) and A forbidden woman (José Luis Ruiz Marcos, 1974).
Also in The Strange Love of the Vampires (Klimovsky, 1977) and the television series The Hotel of the Thousand and One Stars (Yagüe, 1978). In addition, he made a couple of collaborations in the program Sálvame and was part of the jury of the Telecinco program ¡Mira qué jumps!
He also published books with Manuel Villegas López, Jaime Salom and José Luis Garci: La casa de las chivas (1971); with Hugo Pratt: The Secret of Tristan Bantam: Appointment in Bahia (1971); with Alberto Solsona, José Luis Garci and Adolfo Castaño: The Tales of Popeye (1973); A Perfect Marriage (1973); So Near and Far (1973); The colonizers: film plot (1974); with José Luis Garci, Adolfo Castaño and Alberto Solsona: Los Cuentos de Rosario (1974); and with Dick Fulton and Adolfo Castaño: Mandrake: La dimension X (1974).
With Lázaro Irazábal he published Una de many (1974); with Juan José Daza del Castillo and Abelardo Empecinado: At Dawn (1975); with Enrique Herreros, Juan José Daza del Castillo and Abelardo Empecinado: El chalet de los geranios (1975); with Juan José Daza del Castillo: The Night of the Vampires (1975) and collaborated with Domingo López in Wild Wild East (2015).
Iván Reguera and Juan José Aparicio investigated the figure of Pumares and published the book Carlos Pumares: a cry in the night (2006).
