The actress and casting director of San Pedro del Pinatar, unforgettable civil guard of ‘Manolito Gafotas’, died this week at the age of 55, victim of cancer. She was, according to the filmmaker Miguel Albaladejo, “a unique comedian, a dramatic actress with a personality to face from the absurd to tenderness”
The Murcian actress and casting director Geli Albaladejo (‘Manolito Gafotas’, ‘The open sky’, ‘The orphanage’, ‘The box 507’, ‘The adventures of Moriana’) died this week, at the age of 55, for a cancer that he has battled for the past seven years. What fun it was to work with her. Have a good trip, Geli! ”Wrote the writer Elvira Lindo, co-writer of ‘The first night of my life’ (1998), ‘Manolito Gafotas’ (1999) and ‘El cielo Abierto’ (2001). Three films directed by the Alicante filmmaker Miguel Albaladejo, one of his great friends, who in an obituary published in the newspaper ‘El País’ praised Geli Albaladejo, born in San Pedro del Pinatar in 1966, “her gift for emotion and truth”.
She was, according to the director, “a unique comedian, a dramatic actress with a personality to face from the absurd to the tenderness.” Together, they also directed the 1994 short film ‘Sangre ciega’, which was nominated for a Goya for Best Fiction Short Film.
Thank you, Geli Albaladejo. Thanks for making us a little happier on screen and in life. You called Geli and the answer was always “yes.” We will miss you very much. DEP ❤️🌹 pic.twitter.com/25slon8bco
🏳️🌈🇪🇸🔻 (@Srpacotomas) October 14, 2021
The friendship between the three (Elvira Lindo, Miguel Albaladejo and Geli Albaladejo) led to some of the most remembered comic scenes in Spanish cinema in recent decades. In fact, “Elvira wanted to form a kind of comic couple with her and wrote the characters of Cardona and Benítez, two civil guards heirs of Azcona” that appear in ‘The first night of my life’ and in ‘Manolito Gafotas’, where she rescues a baby from a container. The director of Pilar de la Horadada also directed her in ‘Ataque verbal’ (2000) and in the series ‘Vive cantando’ (2013), a film written by Murcian Darío Madrona and Mariano Baselga, in which Geli once again demonstrated, as highlighted by Miguel Albaladejo, “his unique personality for comedy, for the absurd and for tenderness.”
Sergi López and Geli Albaladejo in the film ‘The open sky’, directed by Miguel Albaladejo. /
Great directors
In social networks, numerous colleagues have given him farewell words, also from the Film Academy and from the Union of Actors. Salvador García Ruiz, Enrique Urbizu, Ángeles González Sinde, Ramón Salazar, Jorge Sánchez Cabezudo and Juan Antonio Bayona were, among others, some filmmakers for whom the Pinatara woman worked as casting director for their film projects.
In theater he participated in interesting productions such as ‘El adefesio’, a story of contrasts, poetry and frustrations written by Rafael Alberti and recovered by Tomás Gayo Producciones, under the direction of Nieves Gámez, who took it in 2003 to the Cervantes Theater in Buenos Aires with Manuel Galiana, Trinidad Rugero and María Luisa Merlo, half a century after it opened in the capital of Argentina.
«Dear Geli! I will no longer have your laugh, your common sense, your blunt truth … I will not see the brightness of your eyes or your red lips, but you will remain in my heart and your overwhelming force will prevent me from forgetting every minute with you », wrote Luisa Martín (‘Serving and protecting’), on Instagram. RNE journalist and announcer Señor Paco Tomás (‘Wisteria Lane’) wrote on Twitter: «Thank you Geli Albaladejo for always making us happier. On screen and in life. D.E.P”.
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