Juan Carlos Mareco (January 20, 1926October 8, 2009) was a

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

and radio and television

talk show host Below is a list of talk show hosts, sorted alphabetically by their surnames. __NOTOC__ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z See also * List of game show hosts This is a list of ...

. He achieved fame in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

from the 1960s onwards in comedy roles and as a television host in a variety of genres.

Biography

Mareco was born in

Carmelo, Uruguay Carmelo is a city located in the department of Colonia Department, Colonia of western Uruguay, noted for its wineries. Location Route 21 passes through the city, joining it with Nueva Palmira to the northwest and Colonia del Sacramento to the so ...

in 1926. He debuted as actor in a local 1943

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

production, ''El hombre más lindo del mundo'' (''The Best-Looking Man in the World''), and in Uruguayan film in a comedy, ''Detective a contramano'' (''

The Detective Goes the Wrong Way ''The Detective Goes the Wrong Way'' (Spanish:''Detective a contramano'') is a 1949 Uruguayan comedy film directed by Adolfo L. Fabregat and starring Juan Carlos Mareco, Mirtha Torres and Roberto Fontana.Rist p.578 Cast * Juan Carlos Mareco J ...

'', 1949). Given third billing in Spanish director

Alberto De Zavalia Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic ''Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Albertin ...

's ''El otro yo de Marcela'' (1950). He later joined Argentine

latin jazz Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, whic ...

drummer

Tito Alberti Tito Alberti (January 12, 1923 – March 25, 2009) was an Argentine jazz drummer. Life and work Tito Alberti was born Juan Alberto Ficicchia in the port city of Zárate to an Argentine mother and a Sicilian father in 1923. Enjoying a gregariou ...

as a vocalist in Alberti's Jazz Casino Orchestra, touring throughout Latin America until 1957. Mareco eventually relocated to Spain in 1962. Nicknamed ''Pinocho'' (

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...

), he was cast by that stage name in a number of Spanish comedies during the 1950s and '60s, and was both the

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

voice actor Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

and the foil for the

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

n version of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

marionette A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or reveale ...

Topo Gigio Topo Gigio () originally known as "COCO GIGIO" was the lead character of a children's puppet show on Italian television in the early 1960s. The character, created in 1958 by artist Maria Perego, her husband Federico Caldura, and fellow artist G ...

.''Clarín'': Murió Juan Carlos Mareco
Settling in Argentina, he earned four

Martín Fierro Awards The Martín Fierro Awards ( es, Premios Martín Fierro) is the name of the most prominent awards for Argentine radio and television, granted by APTRA, the Association of Argentine Television and Radio Journalists. History The awards were first g ...

from 1967 to 1972, but after 1976, faced political persecution in Argentina because of his

Peronist Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of Ar ...

sympathies. He returned to Argentine television after the 1982

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

as host of a successful, no-frills afternoon talk show, ''Cordialmente''. Mareco would receive a total of eight Martín Fierro awards, as well as a

Konex Award Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The pur ...

for Best Television Host in 1991, and remained on TV until his retirement. Juan Carlos Mareco died on October 8, 2009, aged 83. His remains are buried at Cementerio Parque Jardín de Paz, in Pilar.Mareco buried in Pilar

Selected filmography

* ''

'' (1949)

References

External links

* * 1926 births 2009 deaths People from Carmelo, Uruguay Uruguayan male television actors Uruguayan male comedians Uruguayan expatriate actors in Argentina Expatriate male actors in Argentina Uruguayan male stage actors 20th-century comedians {{Uruguay-tv-actor-stub