MIAMI, United States. — Numerous Cuban artists reacted this Friday to the death of the actor Alexis Díaz de Villegas, who died in Havana at the age of 56.
Friends and colleagues of Díaz de Villegas lamented the event and recalled the human and artistic qualities of the protagonist of Juan of the Dead.
“The theater in Cuba has just died. Alexis Díaz de Villegas was the greatest theater actor that country has ever had. No one handled the voice like Alexis, no one handled the body like Alexis ”, he wrote in Facebook Roberto San Martín, who shared the stage with the late actor and playwright.
San Martin recalled an anecdote with Díaz de Villegas during a season they shared as part of the cast of the theater group El Público.
“I remember one day in the dressing room of ´El Público´. We were in the middle of the season of ´La Celestina´ and I felt a noise that seemed to come from everywhere, and in my ingenuousness as a young actor I asked: ´And that noise?´ And he answered me: ´it´s me´. He was making a sound that sounded like you’re rubbing your fingertips against the rim of a glass, like this, and it was magical because it didn’t seem to come from anywhere and you could hear it everywhere. That’s how magical ‘El Majá’ was and at the same time he broke you a guaguancó wherever he wanted and wherever he wanted he drank a bottle of rum under the influence of a bolero from bars and canteens. Anyway, my brother, I wish you a good trip and that you meet your teachers up there. I will miss the actor, but the person much more.”
“Despite the fact that life hit you hard once, we will always remember you smiling, kind, fair. I never saw you upset or angry. And always with an incredible desire to work”, remembered Erdwin Fernandez Collado.
The actor defined Díaz de Villegas as “an incredible, immense artist.”
“Actors are a family, and sometimes we spend more time together working than at home. That’s why it hurts us. You are one of the greats, brother. An incredible, immense artist (…). Rest in peace, friend, because we know firsthand what you fought in this life.
At the time of his death, Alexis Díaz de Villegas was director of the Impulso Teatro group. He also had an important step through the cinema, participating in productions such as between cyclones, kangamba Y The horn of plenty.
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