Juan Belmonte García (14 April 1892 – 8 April 1962) was a Spanish

bullfighter A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activity ...

. He fought in a record number of bull fights and was responsible for changing the art of bullfighting. He had minor deformities in his legs which forced him to design new techniques and styles of bullfighting.

Life

Born in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

, his family moved to the Triana neighbourhood when he was three, according to the biographer A. Diaz Canabate. Belmonte began his bullfighting career in 1908, touring around

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") , ...

in a children's bullfighting group called ''Los Niños Sevillanos''. He killed his first

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, includin ...

on 24 July 1910. As an adult, his technique was unlike that of previous matadors; he stood erect and nearly motionless, and always stayed within inches of the bull, unlike previous matadors, who stayed far from the animal to avoid the horns. As a result of this daring technique, Belmonte was frequently gored, sustaining many serious wounds. One such incident occurred during a November 1927 bullfight in Barcelona, Spain. Belmonte was gored through his chest and pinned against a wall. Several other toreros rescued him. Among the spectators that day were the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

and Queen of Spain and the Infanta Beatriz. Belmonte's rivalry with

José Gómez Ortega José Gómez Ortega (8 May 1895 – 16 May 1920), commonly known as Joselito (), was a Spanish matador in the early twentieth century. Younger brother of matador de toros Rafael Gómez Ortega ("El Gallo"), Joselito was considered a child pro ...

(a.k.a. ''Joselito''), another contender for the appellation "greatest matador of all time", from 1914 to 1920 is known as the Golden Age of Bullfighting. The era was cut short when Joselito was fatally gored on 16 May 1920, at the age of 25,Dozier, Thomas (1955), The One Who Lived
Sports Illustrated
/ref> at a bullfight in Talavera de la Reina, a small town not far from

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 ...

. Belmonte then had to carry alone the weight of the whole bullfighting establishment, which proved to be unbearable, and which in 1922 led to the first of his three temporary retirements. TimeCover19250105

In 1919, Belmonte fought 109 bullfights (corridas), a number unmatched by any matador before, until the 1965 bullfight season when Manuel Benítez Pérez ("

El Cordobés Manuel Benítez Pérez (born 4 May 1936), more commonly known as ''El Cordobés'' (The Cordovan), is a Spanish bullfighter, matador, and actor active in the 1960s who brought an unorthodox acrobatic and theatrical style to the bullring. Career ...

") performed in 111 corridas, surpassing Belmonte's record. The Mexican matador

Carlos Arruza Carlos Arruza (February 17, 1920 – May 20, 1966), born Carlos Ruiz Camino, was one of the most prominent bullfighters of the 20th century. He was known as "El Ciclón" ("the cyclone"). Arruza was born in Mexico to Spanish parents. He bega ...

fought 108 corridas in one season but it is said that he refused to pass Belmonte's record out of respect for the maestro. After his third and final retirement in 1935,Sport: Death of a Matador, Time, 1962
/ref> Belmonte moved to a 3,500-acre ranch in Andalusia, where he "lived the life of a gentleman bull-breeder". He also published a (ghostwritten) autobiography. Written by

Manuel Chaves Nogales Manuel Chaves Nogales (Seville, Spain August 1897 – May, 1944 in London) was a Spanish journalist and writer. Politically he was a moderate left-wing republican democrat who defined himself as "antifascist and antirevolutionary". As such, he was ...

and published in 1937, it was called ''Juan Belmonte, matador de toros: su vida y sus hazañas'' (Juan Belmonte, killer of bulls: his life and deeds) and consisted of his story as told to Nogales. The book was translated into English by

Leslie Charteris Leslie Charteris (born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, 12 May 1907 – 15 April 1993), was a British-Chinese author of adventure fiction, as well as a screenwriter.Henry de Montherlant Henry Marie Joseph Frédéric Expedite Millon de Montherlant (; 20 April 1895 – 21 September 1972) was a French essayist, novelist, and dramatist. He was elected to the Académie française in 1960. Biography Born in Paris, a descendant ...

and

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

, and he appears in two of Hemingway's books: '' Death in the Afternoon'' and ''

The Sun Also Rises ''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bu ...

''. Like Hemingway, Belmonte committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

by gunshot. Juan Belmonte was the single matador that changed the style of bullfighting. Born with slightly deformed legs, he could not run or jump like other boys and so when he finally began his career as a matador, he firmly planted his feet on the ground, never giving way. He forced the bull to go around him, whereas others until then had jumped almost constantly like circus performers. During his bullfighting career he received 24 serious wounds and 'countless minor ones'. He later developed a grave heart condition, identified by a Madrid specialist who advised him to 'go easy' and to stop riding, an instruction that he initially took to heart but, in the last spring of his life, disobeyed in order to ride his favourite horse, Maravilla, on the ranch with his son. Shortly before his death he learned that he had lung cancer. After a final morning ride, he returned home to his ranch house, took his 6.35mmBentley, Logan (1962). What the horns couldn't do, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1073716/index.htm

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, a ...

from a drawer in his study and shot himself. He died within a week of his 70th birthday. Berman and WallaceJeffrey Berman and Patricia Hatch Wallace (2007), Cutting and the pedagogy of self-disclosure suggest that this may have been a 'copycat suicide'; on hearing of his friend Hemingway's suicide in 1961, Belmonte is said to have answered 'Well done.' The circumstances surrounding his death are the source of some controversy. A popular version, seen for example in Life,http://www.life.com/gallery/22519/image/50713941/bullfighting-culture-controversy#index/18 describes events substantially as follows: when Belmonte's doctor told him that, because of his lifelong injuries and trauma, he could no longer smoke cigars, ride his horses, drink wine or perform sexual acts with women, he decided he was ready to die. He ordered that his favourite horse be brought to him, took a handful of cigars, two bottles of his favourite wine and rode out to his ''

finca In English usage, a ''finca'' (; ) refers to a piece of rural or agricultural land, typically with a cottage, farmhouse or estate building present, and often adjacent to a woodland or plantation. Overview Especially in tourism, the term has r ...

''. A film about his life, ''Belmonte'', was released in 1995. He is interred at the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a bu ...

of Seville, 20 yards from the grave of his rival of seven seasons, Joselito. His wish was to be buried in the robe of his

Holy Week Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...

fraternity A fraternity (from Latin ''frater'': "brother"; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternit ...

. At the time of Belmonte's death, Catholic rules prescribed against suicide victims' being buried in consecrated ground. According to today's more pastoral norms, a suicide victim is considered to be temporarily insane, and thus might be accorded Catholic burial. Nevertheless, Belmonte's death provoked a strong sadness in the city of Seville.

In popular culture

Belmonte is referred as a former friend of Montgomery Burns in the episode 533 (" Four Regrettings and a Funeral") of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...

''. Belmonte also appears as a character in

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

's 2011 film ''

Midnight in Paris ''Midnight in Paris'' is a 2011 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender ( Owen Wilson), a screenwriter, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materi ...

'' as a friend of

, who considers him to be "truly brave". He is portrayed by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

actor Daniel Lundh. Ernest Hemingway features Belmonte in ''Death in the Afternoon'' and as a minor character in ''The Sun Also Rises''. Referred to as "the greatest bullfighter who ever lived" in the 2009 comedy film ''

Bunny and the Bull ''Bunny and the Bull'' is a 2009 British comedy film from writer-director Paul King. It stars Edward Hogg and Simon Farnaby in a surreal recreation of a road trip. King has previously worked on British television comedies ''The Mighty Boosh'' a ...

''. Belmonte is referenced in ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster, portraying his difficulties as he tries to balance ...

'' in the first season's episode " The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti" by

Paulie Gualtieri Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri is a fictional character portrayed by Tony Sirico on the HBO series ''The Sopranos'', one of the chief henchmen of series protagonist Tony Soprano. Sirico originally auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior ...

, although he refers to him as a "writer", so was likely confusing him with Ernest Hemingway, who committed suicide in a similar fashion earlier.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belmonte, Juan 1892 births 1962 suicides Spanish bullfighters Sportspeople from Seville Suicides by firearm in Spain