Pepe Soriano

Pepe Soriano
Pepe Soriano
	Soriano in 2023
Born	José Carlos Soriano; 25 September 1929; Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died	13 September 2023 (aged 93); Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nationality	Argentine
Other names	Pepe Soriano
Alma mater	University of Buenos Aires
Occupations	Actor; Director; playwright;
Years active	1953–2011

José Carlos "Pepe" Soriano (25 September 1929 – 13 September 2023) was an Argentine actor, director, and playwright.^[1]^[2]

Early life

Soriano was born and raised in

A Midsummernight's Dream at the renowned Colón Theatre

, in 1953.

Debuting in television in 1954, Soriano soon starred in leading roles in Argentine premieres of

Argentine cinema, he was cast as the lead in Juan José Jusid's production of Roberto Cossa's tragedy, Tute Cabrero (1968) and in Raúl de la Torre's character study, Juan Lamaglia y Sra.

("Mr. and Mrs. Juan Lamaglia", 1970).

Career

Soriano appeared in a number of

return to democracy in 1973, Soriano was cast as Schultz, a German anarchist works as a ranch hand, in Osvaldo Bayer's La Patagonia rebelde ("Rebellion in Patagonia", 1974). The portrayal of the brutal repression of a 1922 sheep ranch workers' strike was made with the assistance of the progressive new Governor of Santa Cruz Province, Jorge Cepernic, and resulted in serious problems for both Cepernic and many of those involved in the film - including Soriano, who left for Spain

in 1977.

Anxious to improve their tarnished international image, the new

La nona ("Granma", 1979). The slow pace of liberalization in the dictatorship's policy towards the arts pushed artists led by playwrights Osvaldo Dragún and Carlos Gorostiza to create an Argentine Open Theatre

movement in 1980, to which Soriano was one of the first and best-known adherents. Their maiden festival, 28 July 1981, was a success marred by the fire bombing of their Picadero Theatre a week later (an unsolved mystery to this day).

A

Asesinato en el senado de la nación

("An Assassination in the Senate", 1984), a historical drama on the 1935 attempted murder of the reformist senator.

Soriano worked in the theatre less in subsequent years, continuing to accept leading roles in film and on Argentine television. He also starred in

El brindis ("The Toast", 2007), where a Jewish-Chilean

patriarch struggles to bring his disparate family closer.

Pepe Soriano died in Buenos Aires on 13 September 2023, at the age of 93.[2]