MIAMI, United States. – Cuban actor Alden Knight, National Television Award winner, died this Tuesday morning at the age of 89. as reported by the Actuar Agency. Knight was one of the most recognizable figures in radio, theater and television in Cuba, with an artistic career that spanned more than six decades.
The actor was born on August 15, 1936 in the region of Camaguey and, as a child, he moved with his family—of Jamaican descent—to the province of Guantánamo. There he took his first steps in the artistic world as a singer and reciter on the CMKS station, where he worked with the group Sorpresa and the Julito Delgado group, according to Agencia Actuar.
Later he moved to Havana, where he received acting training and managed to integrate into the main spaces of radio, theater and television. On several occasions he recalled that his entry into television occurred at a stage in which the programs were carried out completely live, before the introduction of the videotape, which required – according to his own testimonies – absolute concentration and great versatility to take on diverse characters in a very short time.
He was part of the cast of the Havana Musical Theater and played characters of great dramatic demand, including Mephistopheles in the play of the same name. In television theater he worked in Sizwe Banzi is deaddirected by Roberto Garriga in the 1980s. In that staging, set in South Africa, he shared the stage with Idelfonso Tamayo and took on the challenge of playing between 12 and 15 characters over the course of an hour-long performance.
His work on television included soap operas and police series. He also lent his voice to children’s and musical productions, including the songs of the combo Los Yoyo in Aunt Tata tells stories.
Throughout his career, Knight constantly defended the valorization of the Afro-Cuban image in the face of racial prejudice. He was also unconditional to the island’s regime.
Throughout his career he collaborated with figures such as Asenneh Rodríguez, with whom he formed stage duos, and with the dancer Olga Gómez. He also worked alongside personalities from Cuban and international culture, including Alfonso Arau and José Antonio Alonso.
He was the founder of the Tacya theater group and ventured into musical theater. In cinema he participated in films considered classics of Cuban cinematography, such as The other Christopher (1963), The Baptism (1968), The other Francisco (1975), A woman, a man, a city (1978) and Far from Africa (1996).
During the 1970s he developed a stage work based on the work of Nicolas Guillentogether with the actress Asenneh Rodríguez, under the direction of the choreographer Luis Trápaga.
Among his last public appearances were the Legendary Nights of Guajirito and his participation in the television program Between you and mewhere he evoked the work of prominent artists on the national scene.
