Marissa Paredes, who has died aged 78, had old Hollywood glamor. She had verve, style and a real sense of mischief. Pedro Almodóvar has contributed her presence and poise to a series of films that have strengthened her international standing as an actress with a range that straddles the epic and the intimate.
Born into a working-class family in Plaza Santa Ana in central Madrid, she taught herself to read using a neighbour’s picture books. She attended school between the ages of 7 and 11, began training in a tailor’s shop a year later, and made her film debut as a prostitute at the age of 14, after boldly approaching José María Forque, who was filming Police Call 091 (1960) near her home. She enjoyed small roles in the films of Fernando Fernan Gomez and Antoni Ribas as well television series, but during these years it was on stage where she cemented her reputation as an actress who blends dramatic intelligence with secret intensity.
She was first hired by the Teatro Commedia de Madrid when she was sixteen, got her big break to replace a lead actor who had fallen ill, and went on to specialize in roles of defiant and melancholy women in works by writers including Tennessee Williams and Ingmar. Bergman, José Martín Recuerda, and Peter Shaffer, including a series of popular video shows for Spain’s Estudio 1 TV.
She once told me that the lack of Spanish was an advantage that allowed her to avoid typing. Her distinctive chiseled features, striking eyes, and husky voice were matched by an elegance, defiance, and theatrical presence that became increasingly prevalent in films during the 1980s—beginning with her role as pornographic actress Zoila Gomez in Fernando Truepa’s first romantic film, Opera Prima (1980).
She recognized her rich collaboration with Almodovar – including during a public conversation as part of Valladolid Food IndustriesAlmodovar retrospective in 2016 – unique and very satisfying. The roles proved unforgettable: acid-fueled assassin Sister Manure in Dark Habits (1983); Torch singer Becky Del Paramo in high heels (1991); Troubled novelist Liu navigates personal and professional crises in “My Secret Flower” (1995).
“All About My Mother” (1999) showcased her full dramatic range – blending a unique star quality with a lively, earthy relationship with the Spanish language shaped by her distinctive smoky voice. As the devoted mother in The Skin I Live In (2011), she brought the unsettling quality that Agustí Villaronga and Guillermo del Toro respectively relied on in the horror films In a Glass Cage (1986) and The Devil’s Backbone (2001). Her 75 films include work with Roberto Benigni, Jaime Rosales, Arturo Ripstein, Raul Ruiz, and with Luis Miniaro, in the upcoming Emergency Exit.
Paredes never forgot her working-class roots, and maintained to the end a strong sense of social justice. A committed feminist — who earlier this year spoke out against domestic violence — her progressive left-wing politics came to the fore when, as president of Spain’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2003, she led industry protests against Spain’s support for… we Invasion of Iraq. Paredes has never been the type to suffer fools gladly – one day I watched her address a provocative comment by a right-wing politician with a winning combination of tact and chutzpah.
At the time of her death, she was working on a new solo play with Luis Pascual, the director with whom she had achieved two of her greatest theatrical roles: as an anguished actress in Lorca’s unfinished play Untitled (1989) and as troubled Gertrude struggling to reconcile her responsibilities as queen and mother in Edward Fernandez’s Hamlet ( 2006).
Devoted to her partner of 41 years, Cima Prado – former director of the Spanish National Film Library – and her daughter, María Isasi, also an actress, from a previous relationship with director Antonio Isasi Isasmendi, she will be remembered as a star who gave shape to some of the most distinguished women of modern Spanish cinema.