Fernando Fernán Gómez
Born	Fernando Fernández Gómez (1921-08-28)28 August 1921 Lima, Peru
Died	21 November 2007(2007-11-21) (aged 86) Madrid, Spain
Resting place	Cementerio de la Almudena
Citizenship	Argentina Spain
Years active	1940–2007
Spouse(s)	María Dolores Pradera (1945–1959) Emma Cohen (2000–2007)
Children	Fernando and Helena Fernán Gómez
Parents	Fernando Díaz de Mendoza y Guerrero Carola Fernán Gómez
Awards	Goya Award for Best Director 1987 El viaje a ninguna parte Goya Award for Best Actor 1987 Mambrú se fue a la guerra 1999 El abuelo Goya Award for Best Original Screenplay 1987 El viaje a ninguna parte Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor 1993 Belle Époque Goya Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 2001 Lázaro de Tormes
Seat B of the Real Academia Española
In office 30 January 2000 – 21 November 2007
Preceded by	Emilio Alarcos Llorach
Succeeded by	José Luis Borau

Fernando Fernández Gómez (28 August 1921 – 21 November 2007) better known as Fernando Fernán Gómez was a Spanish actor, screenwriter, film director, theater director, novelist, and playwright. Prolific and outstanding in all these fields, he was one of Spain's most famous actors, and was elected a member of the Royal Spanish Academy in 1998.^[1] Throughout his career, Fernán Gómez appeared in 200 films working with directors including José Luis Sáenz de Heredia, José Antonio Nieves Conde, Luis García Berlanga, Juan Antonio Bardem, Edgar Neville, Rafael Gil, Carlos Saura, Víctor Erice, Pedro Almodóvar, Fernando Trueba, Jaime de Armiñán, José Luis Garci, José Luis Cuerda, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Raffaello Matarazzo, Antonio Pietrangeli, and G. W. Pabst.

Biography

According to his memoir,^[2] he was probably born in Lima on 28 August 1921, even though his birth certificate indicates that he was born in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. The reason for this is that his mother, the theater actress Carola Fernán Gómez, was touring South America when he was born in Lima, so his birth certificate was issued days later in Argentina, a country whose nationality he retained, in addition to Spanish nationality, which was granted to him in 1984. Being an extramarital son, his father was also the actor Fernando Díaz de Mendoza y Guerrero, whose mother, María Guerrero, prevented the marriage between Fernando Fernán Gómez's parents.^[3]

After the Spanish Civil War he began to study law but interrupted his studies to work in theater. In 1943 he began to act in movies but also continued working on plays. He formed his own theater company and received awards for directing and writing. During the 1940s and 1950s, he established himself as a leading actor in many films, mostly in comedies (El destino se disculpa, Carnival Sunday, Anchor Button, The Last Horse, The Pelegrín System, That Happy Couple, The Other Life of Captain Contreras, Faustina), but also in dramas (Reckless, The Tenant) and musicals (Morena Clara). In between, he also appeared as a supporting actor in two foreign films, Voice of Silence, with Aldo Fabrizi in the lead role, and The Bachelor, starring Alberto Sordi. In 1954 he started to direct movies, receivimg praise for his 1958 comedy La vida por delante, which led to a sequel, La vida alrededor. The films he directed include The Wicked Carabel, For Men Only, Don Mendo's Revenge, El extraño viaje, a black drama which explores the pueblo as a meeting place of national motifes,^[4] Life Goes On, My Daughter Hildegart, Mambru Went to War, Voyage to Nowhere and The Sea and Time (both films based on his own novels), and Lázaro de Tormes.

He was very much in demand during the 1970s and 1980s, gaining a prestige as an actor in such films as Ana and the Wolves, The Spirit of the Beehive The Love of Captain Brando, Pim, pam, pum... ¡fuego!, Mama Turns 100, Maravillas, and Esquilache. In 1977, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival for his role in The Anchorite.^[5] In 1984 he won the Pasinetti Award for Best Actor for his role in Los zancos at the Venice Film Festival.^[6] He won the Silver Bear again at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival in 1985 for his role in Stico^[7] and finally the Honorary Golden Bear at the 55th Berlin International Film Festival^[8] in 2005. The 1990s and the 2000s were a less active period for him, but he enjoyed something of a revival, featuring in some major projects: Belle Époque, All About My Mother, two starring roles in The Grandfather and the hit Butterfly's Tongue, Plenilune, In the City Without Limits, and The Shanghai Spell.

He wrote 11 novels and stage plays, one of the most successful was Las bicicletas son para el verano (Bicycles Are for the Summer) in 1977,^[9] showing the sufferings of a family and their neighbours in besieged Madrid during the Civil War.

Entrance to the Fernando Fernán Gómez Theater. Madrid

He married María Dolores Pradera in 1945; they divorced in 1959. He married Emma Cohen in 2000.

Fernando Fernán Gómez died in Madrid on 21 November 2007 from a heart failure aggravated by pneumonia and colon cancer.^[10] On 19 November 2007, he was admitted to the Oncology area of the Madrid University Hospital La Paz to be treated for pneumonia. After the President of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced the death of the actor, the Government of Spain posthumously awarded Fernán Gómez the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise on 23 November.^[11] The mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, also announced that the Cultural Center of the Villa de Madrid would be renamed the Fernando Fernán Gómez Theater.^[12] As he was a lifelong anarchist, his coffin was covered in a black and red anarchist flag and was later cremated in the Almudena Cemetery in Madrid.^[13]

Filmography

Theater

Bibliography

Awards

• Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival (1977/1985)
• Pasinetti Award for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival (1984)
• Goya Award for Best Director (1986)
• Goya Award for Best Original Screenplay (1986)
• Goya Award for Best Actor (1986/1998)
• Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor (1992)
• Lifetime Achievement Award at the Actors and Actresses Union Awards (1992)
• Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (1995)
• Donostia Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival (1999)
• Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival (2005)

See also

• Café Gijón (Madrid)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fernando Fernán Gómez.

• Fernando Fernán Gómez at IMDb
• Fernán Gómez: Writer, Movie-Maker, Anarchist