Actor Manolo Solo, whose real name was Manuel Jesús Fernández Serrano, died this Thursday at the age of 62 from cancer, according to the Film Academy. Born in Algeciras, the actor, one of the most popular faces in Spanish cinema — there were years when he worked in 15 different productions — participated in numerous plays and films and won the Goya for Best Supporting Actor in 2017 for his work in Tarde para la ira, by Raúl Arévalo.
Read more Begoña Gómez recovers the passport after it was taken away by Judge Peinado
A very beloved character, one of those actors who seem to be everywhere, his death has caused surprise and shock both in the acting world and among viewers, who have filled social media with messages. “During his more than 30-year career, Manolo proved to be one of the best of his generation, a great professional and a great colleague. Manolo did not stop working until his last days,” his representation agency stated. Other condolences came from Santiago Segura, Juan Diego Botto, and Juanma Moreno, president of Andalusia. The AISGE entity highlighted his “stratospheric talent” and “uncommon sagacity.”
Although he stood out as a supporting actor, he also played leading roles, notably in Cerrar los ojos, by Víctor Erice, a film that had great international impact. Recently, Solo had participated in the miniseries Anatomía de un instante, based on Javier Cercas’s work about the 23F coup d’état, in which he played General Gutiérrez Mellado. Another of his last works was in the film Una quinta portuguesa by Avelina Prat, where he played a sad university professor, lost in the labyrinths of scholarship and abandoned by his partner. At the last Cannes festival, Aquí, by Tiago Guedes, based on the work of J.M Coetzee, was well received, where Solo delivered a highly praised performance.
Interestingly, Solo did not want to play the role that earned him his Goya, the Triana, a marginal drug addict and easy to caricature, as he told this newspaper in an interview. And that even though Arévalo, the director, had offered it to him eight years earlier. “It was a character with which you could shine or you were going to get beaten up, and I was sure I was going to get beaten up,” Solo said. Finally, it led him to get on the Goya stage to lift the trophy and give a speech… and freeze. “It completely overwhelmed me. There was a moment when I was addressing Raúl without seeing him, as if the stage had turned or something. I no longer knew where I was sitting to locate myself properly, it was tremendous,” he recalled.
Besides his Goya in 2017, he was nominated on other occasions: for his work in B, la película, by David Ilundain, where he played Judge Ruz, who investigated the Bárcenas case, or for his role in El buen patrón, by Fernando León de Aranoa, as the right hand of the despotic businessman played by Javier Bardem.
Manolo Solo studied Education Sciences in Seville, the city where he grew up and where he also studied at the Theatre Institute without graduating, although he honed his skills as an actor in theaters and on the streets. His stage name, Solo, came from his facet as a singer and musician in rock bands. Regarding his theatrical career, he participated in emblematic productions such as the documentary plays Ruz-Bárcenas (2013) and El Rey (2015), both directed by Alberto San Juan and later adapted to film. He worked with renowned directors such as Carme Portaceli (Mrs. Dalloway), Miguel del Arco (El inspector), Juan Diego Botto (La última noche de la peste) or Roger Gual (Smoking Room, a production that received the Actors’ Union Award for Best Supporting Actor in theater). Among his series are Los misterios de Laura, Amar en tiempos revueltos, Aída, and 30 monedas.
He did not like to avoid political issues, neither in life nor in cinema: “It makes me sad and sorry that no one dares to stir up what, from the start, is not as it should be. The monarchy is hardly defensible, especially from a left-wing perspective. I don’t know how those who let it be justify it,” he said in 2023 to AISGE, the entity that manages performers’ copyright. Recently, on social media, he held the Spanish government and the European Union accountable for what he considered their inaction regarding Israel’s attacks on Palestine: “What stops you from doing nothing?“, he asked them, ”while we see the Zionist state of Israel executing Palestinians in plain sight, day after day. Do you have a clear conscience?“.
Some other of his works were in Celda 211, El laberinto del fauno, La flaqueza del bolchevique, La isla mínima, Biutiful, 7 Vírgenes… even as a voice actor in Dragon Ball Z (something that caused him moral conflict, as he was a supporter of the original version to appreciate the acting work). He was often asked to play villains, evil, cruel, psychopathic characters, which he sometimes attributed to the bags under his eyes. And he was always a demanding professional. “It’s not like I often delight in my own work, huh?: I’m quite a bastard. With everyone, in the sense that I’m very critical, but the first of all with myself,” he said.
Read more Thousands of people cross the Ceuta border uncontrolled, putting the autonomous city in check
