![Luisa Vehil en Los tres berretines crop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Luisa_Vehil_en_Los_tres_berretines_crop.jpg)
Luisa Vehil (November 12, 1912,
Montevideo,
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 ...
– October 24, 1991,
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
,
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 ...
) was an
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 ...
an theater and movie actress who had a notable career in Argentina. She was an iconic figure in the
Argentine theatre scene.
Biography
Luisa Vehil was born in 1912 in
Montevideo,
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 ...
, she belongs to an eight generation dynasty of actors originally from
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...
; daughter and granddaughter of theatre players. Her brothers were Paquita and Juan. She was also the aunt of actors
Miguel Ángel Solá and
Mónica Vehil.
Luisa moved to
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, Argentina at an early age, and starred in her first movie in 1933, ''
Los tres berretines'', directed by
Enrique Telémaco Susini
Enrique Telémaco Susini (January 31, 1891 – July 4, 1972) was an Argentine entrepreneur and media pioneer.
In 1920, Susini led the effort for the first radio broadcast in Argentina, and subsequently established one of the earliest regular ra ...
. It was the second Argentine talk movie. She went on to appear in other minor 'talkies' throughout the '30s, working in
tango
Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...
-oriented films by famed tango writer
Manuel Romero and
Eduardo Morera
Eduardo Morera (9 January 1906 – 21 January 1997) was an Argentine film director. Although his career was relatively short compared to other directors of the period, he directed 18 films between 1930 and 1943, including influential tango ...
.
Opposite to
Juan Perón regime she suffered an attack when playing the leading role in the play ''
Fascination''.
Vehil's next big role was in ''
Pampa bárbara'', an epic western directed by
Lucas Demare
Lucas Demare (July 14, 1910 – September 6, 1981) was an Argentine film director, screenwriter, and film producer prominent in the Cinema of Argentina in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Biography
At the 1943 Argentine Film Critics Association Aw ...
and
Hugo Fregonese
Hugo Geronimo Fregonese (April 8, 1908 in Mendoza – January 11, 1987 in Tigre) was an Argentine film director and screenwriter who worked both in Hollywood and his home country.''Cine Nacional''Hugo Fregonese filmography Cinenacional.com
...
. It was her second and last screen appearance throughout the '40s; likewise, she acted in film once per decade – once in the '50s (''
En la ardiente oscuridad'', by
Daniel Tinayre
Daniel Tinayre (14 September 1910 – 24 October 1994) was a French-born Argentine film director, screenwriter and film producer.
Moving to Buenos Aires at a young age, Tinayre directed some 23 films between 1934 and 1974, directing films such ...
, 1958) and once in the '60s (''El bote, el río y la gente'', 1960).
Nevertheless, her main activity was the theater where she was regarded as one of the ''Grand-Dames'' of the national scene, a revered and iconic figure. She played
Mary Stuart,
Juana La Loca
Joanna (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), historically known as Joanna the Mad ( es, link=no, Juana la Loca), was the nominal Queen of Castile from 1504 and Queen of Aragon from 1516 to her death in 1555. She was married by arrangement to Phi ...
,
Samuel Beckett's
Happy Days
''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most su ...
, ''Madame Desmortes'' in
Jean Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ''Antigone'', an a ...
's
L'Invitation au Château and
L'Alouette (The Lark)
''The Lark'' () is a 1952 play about Joan of Arc by the French playwright Jean Anouilh. It was presented on Broadway in English in 1955, starring Julie Harris as Joan and Boris Karloff as Pierre Cauchon. It was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden. Lill ...
,
Alejandro Casona
Alejandro Rodríguez Álvarez, known as Alejandro Casona (3 March 1903 – 17 September 1965) was a Spanish poet and playwright born in Besullo, Spain, a member of the Generation of '27. Casona received his bachelor's degree in Gijon and la ...
's ''Los árboles mueren de pie'', etc.
Between 1964–1967 she directed the Argentina's National Comedy and was also a member of the National Fund for Arts.
She made a comeback in the '70s, appearing in films by
Juan Bautista Stagnaro
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...
,
Alejandro Doria and
Luis Saslavsky
Luis Saslavsky (April 21, 1903 – March 20, 1995) was an Argentine film director, screenwriter and film producer, and one of the influential directors in the Cinema of Argentina of the classic era.
Personal life
Saskavsky was born in Rosar ...
. She would work with Doria one more time in 1982, in ''Los pasajeros del jardín''.
Turning to TV, Vehil starred in the hour-long program ''Navidad en el año 2000'' in 1981 and hosted the show ''Las 24 horas'' from 1982 to 1985. Her last acting performance was in ''
Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...
'' (1989), a controversial film by
Jorge Polaco
Jorge Polaco (20 November 1946 – 20 February 2014) was an Argentine film director and screenwriter. His 1987 film '' En el nombre del hijo'' won Best Film at the 1988 Festroia International Film Festival in Setúbal, Portugal.
Career
After ...
, censored one day short from its release (the first case of censorship in the country following the end of the
Dirty War
The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 as ...
six years prior).
Luisa Vehil was honored as an "Illustrious Citizen of the City of Buenos Aires" in 1990. In 1981 she received the ''Platinum'' and ''Diamond''
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 ...
.
Konex Awards
web site for Luisa Vehil.
She died from natural causes on October 24, 1991.
Selected filmography
* '' Savage Pampas'' (1945)
References
External links
*
Oficial Argentine Theater Files
Konex Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vehil, Luisa
1912 births
1991 deaths
Actresses from Montevideo
Uruguayan expatriate actresses in Argentina
Uruguayan people of Catalan descent
Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires
Uruguayan film actresses
Uruguayan stage actresses
20th-century Uruguayan actresses