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FCG International Scenic Arts 2008: CONCHA VELASCO
“Due to her brilliant and complete career in theater, cinematography, television and music, that summarizes the history of the Spanish stage; due to her versatility as an actress, capable of going the whole way from musical theater to a television series such as “Herederos” [Heirs], including characters such as Saint Teresa or the Red Cross Girl, this last film now 50 years old. She has been the muse of the best playwrights, such as Antonio Gala and her impressive ability to merge with the audience has been continuous throughout all her professional career. The national and international projection which her career has received has not been an impediment to her acting as the best ambassador of her native city, Valladolid.”
According to the Jury that met in Valladolid, Spain (June 16th, 2008), chaired by: Mrs. Mercedes Cantalapiedra Álvarez, 3rd Deputy Mayor of Valladolid and Councillor for Culture, Trade and Tourism of the Valladolid City Council; and made up by the following members: Mr. Manuel Erice Oronoz, International News Editor at ABC Newspaper; Mr. Carlos Escudero de Burón, President of the Carlos III Foundation; Mr. Ignacio Fernández Sobrino, Regional Director of Onda Cero Radio and Antena 3 Television; Mr. Manuel Lombao Lombao, Director of TVE Regional Centers [Spanish National Television] and Mr. Daniel Pérez Fernández, Director of the Teatro Principal of Zamora.
CONCHA VELASCO - Biography
Concepción Velasco Varona, known as Concha or Conchita Velasco is an actress, singer and Spanish television presenter, born in Valladolid (Spain) on 29th November 1939. She studied Classical and Spanish Dance in Madrid at the National Conservatory between the ages of 10 and 20. She started her career as a dancer with the La Coruña Opera Dance Group and in the Manolo Caracol company as a flamenco dancer. She later made her début as junior soprano with the Celia Gámez company. She is also the aunt of the actress Manuela Velasco.
Cinema
Her acting career in cinema started at the age of fifteen in "La reina mora" (1954), which was followed by numerous other films in which she also worked as secondary actress, among which we can highlight "La fierecilla domada" (1956). Following that she co-starred in "Muchachas en vacaciones" (1957) and "Las chicas de la Cruz Roja" (1958), in which she earned her professional reputation working alongside Tony Leblanc, with whom she was to shoot six films. From this period as a young actress we can select six successful films such as "Los tramposos" (1959), "El día de los enamorados" (1959), "Julia y el celacanto" (1959), "Amor bajo cero" (1960), "La verbena de la paloma" (1963)..., among many others, highlighting particularly "Historias de la televisión" (1965), in which Conchita, due to the needs of the script, performs a song entitled "La chica yé-yé" during a scene of the film, a song composed by Augusto Algueró and Cartagena musician and lyrics-writer Master Antonio Guijarro. The success of this song was as great as it was unexpected and Conchita has been associated with the name of the song since then. She suddenly found herself facing tremendous success as a singer, something which she admitted having no previous experience in at the time. However, she then went on to record eight albums with Belter. Later on the recorded her shows “Mata Hari”, “Mamá, quiero ser artista”, “Carmen Carmen”, “La truhana”... In 1990, she recoded a new version of the popular "Chica ye-ye" song, celebrating the 25th anniversary of its success.
At the end of the 1960s, Conchita started playing “wife roles” in films by directors such as Mariano Ozores, José Luis Sáenz de Heredia and Pedro Lazaga. These films include "Las que tienen que servir" (1967), "Cuatro noches de boda" (1969), "El taxi de los conflictos" (1969), "La decente" (1970), "Préstame quince días" (1971), "Venta por pisos" (1971), "Yo soy fulana de tal" (1975), etc. She also started a series of collaboration projects with the popular singer Manolo Escobar in works such as "Pero, ¿en qué país vivimos?" (1967), "Relaciones casi públicas" (1968), "Juicio de faldas" (1969), "En un lugar de la Manga" (1970) and "Me debes un muerto" (1971). In all of those she appeared along with the main figures of Spanish cinema of the time, Duch as Alfredo Landa, José Luis López Vázquez, Antonio Ozores, the previously mentioned Tony Leblanc..., in which they shared the genre of light comedy which was so frequent in Spanish cinema at the time.
With the end of the Franco Dictatorship, Conchita turns into Concha and undergoes a thorough transformation. Along with actors Juan Diego, Tina Sáinz and Ana Belén, she heads the actors strike in 1971 to call for a reduction in hours in the working day in Spain. Due to this she becomes closer to the progressive class in the country and reduces the number of her cinema appearances to dedicate her time to theatre while also being vetoed by TV due to what had happened. During the Spanish Transition, she undertook roles of a more serious nature in films such as "Pim, pam, pum... fuego" (1975), by Pedro Olea, "Las largas vacaciones del 36" (1976), "Esposa y amante" (1977), "La colmena" (1982), by Mario Camus and "Esquilache" (1989) by Josefina Molina. She was nominated for the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress because of her role in this last film. She then acted in "Yo me bajo en la próxima, ¿y usted?" (1992), in which Concha participates in films with a solid literary base in perfect prototypes that respond to a cinematographic ideal that was spread by the deceased filmmaker Pilar Miró, intimate friend of the actress.
Her latest film appearances have been in "Más allá del jardín" (1996), nominated for the Goya Award for Best Actress, "París-Tombuctu" (1999), fulfilling her dream of working alongside director Luis García Berlanga, "km. 0" (2001), "El oro de Moscú" (2002), "Bienvenido a casa" (2005), "B & B" (2006), "Chuecatown" (2007) and "Enloquecidas" (2008)
Theater
As well as in cinema, her greatest professional prestige was attained in the theater. She made her début in "Ven y ven al Eslava" (1959) and she made several other comedies during the 1960s, pieces such as "Los derechos de la mujer" (1961), "The boyfriend" (1962) and " Las que tienen que servir" (1962). Works such as "Don Juan Tenorio" (1966), "El alma se serena" (1969), "Abelardo y Eloísa" (1972) and "Las cítaras colgadas de los árboles" (1974) followed, among others. It was during a representation of Don Juan Tenorio that she met producer Paco Marsó, with whom she shared several years of a relationship before marrying each other in 1976. They had two children: Manuel and Paco. The couple went through several crisis before finally breaking up in 2005.
In 1977 she performed in Las arrecogías del Beaterio de Santa María Egipcíaca, by José Martín Recuerda, along with Pilar Bardem and María Luisa Ponte, in which Concha interprets the character of Mariana Pineda, in which all the other characters symbolically requested the amnesty of the star. She then worked on "Filomena Marturano" (1979), by Eduardo de Filippo, "Yo me bajo en la próxima, ¿y usted?" (1981), "Mata Hari" (1983), both by Adolfo Marsillach and "Buenas noches, Madre" (1985).
In 1986 she prepared a great musical: "Mamá, quiero ser artista", which was tremendously successful and made her very popular. With "Carmen, Carmen" (1988) and "La truhana" (1992) she also appeared in the theater.
During the 1990s, Concha acted the role of the typical prototype of middle-aged woman, tired of her marriage and still needing to feel alive, a woman who keeps on fighting with all her might during her last days of splendour. "La rosa tatuada" (1997), adaptation of the work by Tennessee Williams, undertaken by Vicente Molina Foix, is an example of this type of role, as well as others in cinema.
In 1999, her friend, writer and poet Antonio Gala, wrote "Las manzanas del viernes" for her. This play was highly successful and allowed her to set off on the ambitious project of creating a different version of the famous Broadway musical "Hello, Dolly" (2001), with which she successfully travelled around Spain interpreting the same role that Barbra Streisand had interpreted in the original version..
Her last plays have been "Inés desabrochada" (2003), also by Antonio Gala, along with veteran actors Nati Mistral and Paco Valladares and the new version of "Filomena Marturano" (2006), both highly successful.
Television
Concha made her début on television in the 1960s on the popular TV program "Estudio 1" on TVE [Spanish Nacional Television], in which she acted in diverse famous plays which were being made by the best actors of the time. Among the titles were "La dama del alba" (1965), "La alondra" (1969), "Don Juan Tenorio" (1969), "Marea baja" (1971), "Una muchachita de Valladolid" (1973), "Las brujas de Salem" (1973) and “¿Quiere usted jugar con mí?” (1975).
However, her best role for the small screen came with “Teresa de Jesús” (1984), a series broadcast by TVE in which she played the role of this Spanish Saint and which will go down in history as one of her greatest works and one of Spain’s greatest TV series. With it she demonstrated her versatility to interpret from the lightest and funniest roles to those roles that have the deepest meaning. She also presented the special Year End programmes for TVE between 1985 and 1987 while also participating in theatre plays and “La Comedia Musical Española” (1985).
In 1990, she presented the musical and variety show called “Viva el espectáculo”, on which the best figures of world music appeared. With that she ended her appearances on TVE to Stara a similar program on the private channel Tele 5, a program entitled “Querida Concha” (1992) as well as the contest “Queridos padres” (1992). On Antena 3 TV she presented the program “Encantada de la vida” (1993) and shot the series “Yo, una mujer” (1996) and “Mamá quiere ser artista” (1997), as well as collaborating in the successful “Compañeros” (2000). On the same channel, she substituted the popular presenter Isabel Gemio on the program “Sorpresa, sorpresa” (1999).
She returned to TVE in 2001 to run the program “Tiempo al tiempo”, which started off as a nostalgic chat show that looked back on epochs and artists of the pasta and went on to become a program centered on happenings and gossip chronicles that was withdrawn by the channel in spite of its acceptable viewer ratings. Concha herself admits that she has undertaken certain programs on TV which were below standard reputation in order to finance her costil theater projects. However, she soon went back to quality programs such as the miniseries “Las cerezas del cementerio” (2005), a version of the work by the same name by Gabriel Miró, which was highly liked by both spectators and critics alike.
Her last works on TV have been the intrigue series on Tele 5 “Motivos personales” (2005) and the failed TVE program “Mi abuelo es el mejor” (2006), which was withdrawn a few days alter its launch to Concha’s great dismay.
Her personal life has also been a topic of debate on TV during the last year following her separation from Paco Marsó and her Tax problems. To combat that situation, the tireless Concha has taken refuge in her work, publishing a cookery book called "Concha Velasco entre pucheros", she has returned to political life after a ten-year absence by participating actively in the Gay Rights Dayalong with other actors and actresses such as Pilar Bardem, Loles León, Daniel Guzmán and Cayetana Guillén Cuervo during which they celebrated the Homosexual Marriage Law promulgated by the Spanish Justice Minister, Juan Fernando López Aguilar.
She is currently very successful with her work on the series "Herederos", on TVE, produced by Quarzo, along with Álvaro de Luna, Ginés García Millán, Helio Pedregal and Félix Gómez, among others. The series is broadcast on Mondays at 22h on La 1 channel of TVE and is higjhly acclaimed by the critics.
Her series "Yo, una mujer" is being rebroadcast on Canal 7 on Fridays at 19:45h
Her works
Filmography
- Enloquecidas (2008)
- Chuecatown (2007)
- B & B (2006)
- Bienvenido a casa (2005)
- El oro de Moscú (2002)
- Los pasos perdidos (2001)
- km. 0 (2000)
- París Tombuctú (1999)
- Sombras y luces. Cien años de cine español (1996)
- Más allá del jardín (1996)
- Yo me bajo en la próxima... ¿y usted? (1992)
- Esquilache (1989)
- La hora bruja (1985)
- La colmena (1982)
- Ernesto (1979)
- Cinco tenedores (1979)
- Jaque a la dama (1978)
- Esposa y amante (1977)
- Libertad provisional (1976)
- Las largas vacaciones del 36 (1976)
- Un lujo a su alcance (1975)
- Pim, pam, pum... ¡fuego! (1975)
- Yo soy fulana de tal (1975)
- Mi mujer es muy decente, dentro de lo que cabe (1974)
- Tormento (1974)
- El Love Feroz o cuando los hijos juegan al amor (1973)
- El amor empieza a medianoche (1973)
- Venta por pisos (1972)
- No encontré rosas para mi madre (1972)
- En la red de mi canción (1971)
- Préstame quince días (1971)
- Me debes un muerto (1971)
- En un lugar de La Manga (1970)
- Después de los nueve meses (1970)
- La decente (1970)
- Juicio de faldas (1969)
- Matrimonios separados (1969)
- Cuatro noches de boda (1969)
- Susana (1969)
- Los que tocan el piano (1968)
- Relaciones casi públicas (1968)
- Una vez al año, ser hippy no hace daño (1968)
- Las que tienen que servir (1967)
- María y la otra (1967)
- Pero... ¿en qué país vivimos? (1967)
- El arte de casarse (1966)
- Hoy como ayer (1966)
- El arte de no casarse (1966)
- Viaje de novios a la italiana (1965)
- Historias de la televisión (1965)
- Casi un caballero (1964)
- La verbena de la Paloma (1963)
- La boda era a las doce (1963)
- Sabían demasiado (1962)
- Martes y trece (1961)
- Trampa para Catalina (1961)
- La paz empieza nunca (1960)
- Julia y el celacanto (1960)
- Amor bajo cero (1960)
- Vida sin risas (1959)
- Crimen para recién casados(1959)
- Los tramposos (1959)
- El día de los enamorados(1959)
- Las chicas de la Cruz Roja(1958)
- Muchachas de vacaciones(1957)
- Mensajeros de paz (1957)
- Los maridos no cenan en casa (1956)
- Dos novias para un torero (1956)
- La fierecilla domada (1956)
- El bandido generoso (1954)
- La reina mora (1954)
Discography
Awards