Marisa Paredes

Marisa Paredes

Active - 1976 - 2015  |   Born - Apr 3, 1946 in Madrid, España  |   Genres - Drama, Comedy, Romance

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Biography by AllMovie

Artistically adventurous Spanish actress Marisa Paredes has worked with a number of renowned international directors during her career, but she is most famous for her work with Spain's flamboyant Pedro Almodóvar. Madrid native Paredes was studying acting at the city's Dramatic Arts Conservatory when she began her professional career in the 1960s. Making her name as an actress in Spanish TV, stage, and film work during the 1960s and '70s, Paredes began to attract more international attention in the 1980s. After appearing in Sus Anos Dorados (1980) and Fernando Trueba's comedy Opera Prima (1980), Paredes starred in her first Almodóvar film, the ribald comedy Dark Habits (1984). Among her other 1980s work, Paredes earned the Onda Madrid Prize for her performance as the wife of a Nazi concentration camp doctor in Tras El Cristal (1985). Paredes earned more acting laurels as the unbalanced actress and potential murderess Becky in Almodóvar's High Heels (1991). Solidifying her international prominence, Paredes worked in French, Mexican, and Italian productions, as well as Spanish, throughout the 1990s. After acting with Philippe Loiret in Tombes du Ciel (1993), Paredes starred as a troubled pulp romance writer in Almodóvar's The Flower of My Secret (1995). Paredes starred as Marcello Mastroianni's ex-wife in innovative Chilean expat Raoul Ruiz's comedy Three Lives and Only One Death (1996); appeared in Mexican director Arturo Ripstein's florid crime drama Deep Crimson (1996), based on the same story as The Honeymoon Killers (1969); and played Roberto Benigni's mother-in-law in the Oscar winning Holocaust dramedy Life is Beautiful (1997). After adding a U.S. production to her credits with Talk of Angels (1998), Paredes once again made a colorful role even more so with her passionate turn as diva actress Huma Rojo in Almodóvar's critically hailed, award-winning drama All About My Mother (1999). Though it did not draw as much attention, Paredes also won kudos that same year in Arturo Ripstein's No One Writes to the Colonel (1999). Paredes' consistent excellence earned her Spain's National Film Award in 1996.

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  • Desde niña mostró una gran vocación por el teatro.
  • En 1960 (a los catorce años de edad) debutó en cine. Al año siguiente debutó en teatro bajo la dirección de José Osuna.
  • En los 80, a pesar de ser una actriz de primer orden, cayó en cierto modo en el olvido.
  • Su reconocimiento entre el público español le llegó a la edad de 45 años con el director manchego Pedro Almodóvar, quien la convirtió en una "chica Almodóvar", con papeles principales en películas como Tacones lejanos o La flor de mi secreto.
  • Desde 2000 a 2003 fue la presidenta de la Academia del Cine Español, haciendo frente a la época más controvertida de ésta, ya que en el momento inicial de la Guerra de Irak, los profesionales del cine español se manifestaron rotundamente en contra de todo ello en la gala del año 2003.
  • En cuanto a directores extranjeros se refiere, la cumbre de Marisa Paredes fue trabajar con Roberto Benigni en La vida es bella, donde interpretaba a la madre de Dora, la mujer que encandilaba al protagonista.
  • En el 2010 interpretó a la reina Sofía en la miniserie de televisión Felipe y Letizia.