Silvia Tortosa published a memoir in 2007 under the title 'My Hidden Life'. Few Spanish interpreters have had, however, despite what the title of her book says, a life - apparently, at least - more public and notorious than hers. A multiple life, it should be added. Under the spotlight. As the cover of gossip magazines. The always beautiful actress, who has died at the age of seventy-seven, shone with her own light throughout her long career in theater, film and television. She even had her own YouTube channel. She has been a popular girl; She is a charismatic presenter of programs on the small screen, such as the unforgettable 'Aplauso' from the late seventies, and also a profound tragic at the service of playwrights and film directors of recognized prestige. It has been everything in front of the cameras, although for one it will always be 'The Lady', the drama in which the actress starred under the orders of Jordi Cadena in 1987, and where she played with aplomb a woman obsessed by the death of her husband. she. The Generalitat recognized her - and rewarded her - for this performance, just as she was always recognized by the public's applause, which she never lacked.
The actress's funeral chapel will be opened to her admirers on Monday, March 25, from half past nine to twelve in the morning, in room six of the Las Corts funeral home (Barcelona). The burial will take place immediately afterwards, at half past one in the afternoon, in the Montjuic cemetery.
Silvia Tortosa's career is extensive. After attending the Escola Massana in Barcelona, where she studied drawing, and training as an actress at the Institut del Teatre in the same city, she began her career in front of the cameras under the orders of the ineffable Ignacio F. Iquino, commercial director of the all-terrain era, with a sufficiently eloquent title like 'Carlos's Aunt in a Miniskirt', filmed in 1966. Tortosa was barely 19 years old.
Then films of the same style will follow, with a clear commercial intention. 'The Last Saturday' (1966), by Pedro Balaña; 'El chulo' (1974), by Pedro Lazaga, and 'Clímax' (1977) by Francisco Lara Polop, to name just a few of the films that elevated her along with other actresses of the moment, such as María José Cantudo or Bárbara Rey. All of them received the debatable title of queens of uncovering and, also, in a more political key, muses of the transition.
From this first period it is worth highlighting 'Panic on the Trans-Siberian Railway' (1972) by Eugenio Martin, a horror and science fiction film at the same time in which Tortosa shared the leading role with none other than Christopher Lee, the best Dracula in history, Peter Cushing, the best Sherlock Holmes, and also with Telly Savalas, an undisputed star at that time. Helga Line, another of the muses of the revelation, was in the cast.
But it would be in the theater where Silvia Tortosa would carve out a profession. With works such as 'El adefesio' (1968), by Rafael Alberti; 'El avaro', by Molière, in a 1970 montage, and, among other works, 'Tirano Banderas' (1974), by Valle-Inclán. At that same time she made the transition to a more committed and artistically ambitious cinema, with titles such as 'Asignatura pending' (1977), by Garcí, and 'Until marriage separates us', filmed in the same 1977, under the orders of Pedro Lazaga.
In all that time she was by no means a stranger to television in her dual role as presenter and actress. As a presenter we have already remembered 'Aplauso', which she presented between 1978 and 1981. But what many of her generation contemporaries remember her for is for her intervention in the always remembered 'Studio 1', a television program dedicated to great theater , in which Tortosa participated with works such as 'La casa' (1970), 'El rayo' (1972) and 'Al César lo que es del César' (1973), among other productions. But it has been on television where she has been a popular face throughout her entire career, with such popular series as 'Curro Jiménez', 'The Trace of a Crime' and 'Farmacia de Guardia', among many more. . In that same medium, she played Baroness Von Thyssen in 'Tita Cervera, the Baroness' (2011). Although she was the aforementioned 'The Lady', by Cadena, who elevated her to the status of a great actress during the eighties, a place that she would never abandon.
He never lost his versatility or his smile when it came to facing any role - any job - that fell to his lot. It is worth highlighting, from his subsequent career, two more titles: 'Los mares del Sur' (1990), by Manuel Esteban, and 'Presentimientos' (2013), by Santiago Tabernero. She herself directed a film, 'Muñequitas lindas', in 1998.
Her eventful sentimental life, especially in that Spain unaccustomed to women's freedom, marked her presence on the covers of gossip magazines. She was 19 years old when she married Institut del Teatre professor and theater director Hermann Bonnin, a marriage of which she says in her memoirs: “I got married very young. “He was my theater teacher and we confused friendship with love.” She later married Rafael Arcos, a theater and dubbing actor. She also had a romance with José Umbral, a singer who won the Benidorm Festival, and was the subject of the tabloid press. Then her misfortune hit her when, after marrying the American Charles Davis, he died a few months after the wedding as a result of pulmonary edema. She then another American, Dave Harper, and finally the producer Carlos Cánovas, whom she married in 2008. A love life that the gossip press never stopped reporting on.
Her style as an actress, something much more fundamental for posterity, can be characterized by the word versatility. Silvia Tortosa easily went from dramatic roles to rather comical, even superficial roles. Her expressiveness and emotionality also define her as an interpreter: two conditions that are framed in a dense tone of voice, prone to confidence. She has been an actress, in short, of fiery beauty with a magnetic presence where her undeniable qualities turned her into a mythical, unique being.
