María Jesús Lampreave Pérez (11 December 1930 – 4 April 2016), known professionally as Chus Lampreave, was a Spanish

character actress A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to be ...

who starred in more than 70 films. She is internationally known for her roles in films by

Pedro Almodóvar Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (; (often known simply as Almodóvar) born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish filmmaker. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narr ...

Biography

Lampreave was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. She planned on being a painter and studied at the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acad ...

, after which she worked as an illustrator for the publishing firm. It had not been her intention to become an actress, but she was discovered by

Jaime de Armiñán Jaime de Armiñán Oliver (born 9 March 1927) is a Spanish screenwriter and film director. His films have been nominated for Academy Awards in the Foreign language film category twice, in 1972 for ''My Dearest Senorita, Mi querida señorita'' an ...

and began appearing in films in 1959. Her first work with

was in '' Entre tinieblas'' (1983). In total, Lampreave appeared in eight of his films. Almodóvar is known for his use of recurring female stars; they are referred to as the " Almodóvar girls". Lampreave was known for playing old ladies, usually eccentric female relatives that sported extremely thick glasses. She was recognized for the humor and humanity she added to her characters. Lampreave never starred as a main character, but would come to be known as Spain's most popular supporting actress. Lampreave married in 1960. She had a son, who is a biologist, and a daughter who died in the 1990s after an illness. Among Lampreave's last roles was as the face of three advertisement campaigns for Campofrío ''

embutido (Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese), (European Portuguese) or (Catalan) is a generic term for cured meat products. The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines it as "intestine stuffed with minced meat, mainly pork; intestine stuffed with ...

'' sausages. She spent the last few years of her life away from the spotlight in

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

in the south of Spain. She died in 2016 the age of 85.

Filmography

Television

* ''Lo+Plus'' (1997) *''Hermanas'' (1998)

Awards

* Premio Goya (1992) *

Fotogramas de Plata Fotogramas de Plata are a series of Spanish annual film, theatre and television awards awarded by ''Fotogramas'' film magazine since 1951. On 5 February 1951, ''Fotogramas'' magazine awarded their first Placa de San Juan Bosco award to actor Jes� ...

(2005) * Spanish Actors Union Awards (2006)Chus Lampreave se llevó mejor actriz de reparto
lasemana.es; accessed 20 March 2016. *

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

(2006):

Best actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...

together with the rest of female cast of ''

Volver ''Volver'' (, meaning "to go back") is a 2006 Spanish comedy-drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, and Chu ...

List of awards and nominations

;

Goya Awards The Goya Awards ( es, Premios Goya) are Spain's main national annual film awards, commonly referred to as the Academy Awards of Spain. The awards were established in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sc ...

;

; Spanish Actors Union Awards ;Awards by the Ministry of Culture * Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts, 2001

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lampreave, Chus 1930 births 2016 deaths Spanish television actresses Spanish film actresses Actresses from Madrid Best Supporting Actress Goya Award winners Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners Chicas Almodóvar 20th-century Spanish actresses 21st-century Spanish actresses