Joaquín Pardavé Arce (30 September 1900 – 20 July 1955) was a Mexican film actor, director, songwriter and screenwriter of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.[1] He was best known for starring and directing various comedy films during the 1940s. In some of them, Pardavé paired with one of Mexico's most famous actresses, Sara García. The films in which they starred are El baisano Jalil, El barchante Neguib, El ropavejero, and La familia Pérez. These actors had on-screen chemistry together, and are both noted for playing a wide variety of comic characters from Lebanese foreigners to middle-class Mexicans.

Joaquín Pardavé
Born
Joaquín Pardavé Arce

30 September 1900
Died20 July 1955(1955-07-20) (aged 54)
Mexico City, Mexico
OccupationActor
Years active1910–1955
Spouse
Soledad Rebollo
(m. 1925⁠–⁠1955)

Early life

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Pardavé was born to Spanish immigrants Joaquín Pardavé Bernal and Delfina Arce Contreras, theater actors, in Pénjamo, Guanajuato.[1] His parents came to Mexico with the theatrical company "Betril".[1]

After the death of his mother in 1916, Pardavé decided to settle in the city of Monterrey where he worked as a telegrapher in the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México. There he composed the song "Carmen", dedicated to his girlfriend Carmen Delgado.[1][2] Three years later, he returned to Mexico City after he learned of the death of his father.[1]

Career

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Theatrical career

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At age 18, Joaquín Pardavé followed in the footsteps of his parents.[1] He began his acting career in the operetta Los sobrinos del capitán Grant, in the company of his uncle Carlos Pardavé, when he asked to meet an actor.[1][2] Later he joined the company of Jose Campillo, where he met and teamed for 12 years, Roberto "Panzón" Soto.[1] His first role in this company was in the operetta La banda de las trompetas (1920). Later he won fame in the Mexican Rataplan Journal (1925).[1]

Film career

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He started his film career in the silent film era. Pardavé's film debut was in Viaje redondo in 1919. He participated in other films such as El águila y el nopal (1929), Águilas frente al sol (1932), La zandunga (1937), La tía de las muchachas (1938), En tiempos de Don Porfirio (1939).

Juan Bustillo Oro contracted Pardavé to co-star with Cantinflas in the comedy film Ahí está el detalle (1940). In the film, Pardavé portrays "Cayetano Lastre", the rich and jealous husband of Sofía Álvarez's character Dolores del Paso. The character is later entreated to believe that Cantinflas' "pelado" character is his wife's long-lost brother, the person whom Lastre was eagerly waiting for to reclaim his wife's inheritance. Other co-stars in the film were Sara García and Dolores Camarillo. Ahí está el detalle was ranked thirty-seventh among the top 100 films of Mexican cinema.[3]

Later in the 1940 decade, Pardavé worked in ¡Ay, qué tiempos señor don Simón! (1941) and Yo bailé con don Porfirio (1942). In 1942 he debuts as a film director with El baisano Jalil starring himself and Sara García as "Jalil and Suad Farad", Lebanese entrepreneurs settled in Mexico.[1] Film and theater actress Sara García would soon become Pardavé's on-screen partner. Both starred in the films El barchante Neguib (1946) also as Lebanese-immigrants, El ropavejero (1947), and La familia Pérez (1949).

Personal life

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Joaquín Pardavé, in 1951, at his home Cuahtemoc and Concepcion Beistegui, in Mexico city.

In 1925, Pardavé met Soledad Rebollo, whom he married on October 26, 1925.[2] Soledad became the love of his life and his inspiration for the songs "Plegaria", "Bésame en la boca", "Negra consentida", and "Varita de Nardo".[2]

Death

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On July 20, 1955, at three-o'clock in the morning, Joaquín Pardavé died victim of a stroke caused by stress of excess of work, he was participating in two films simultaneously and in the theatrical play, Un Minuto de Parada.[2] After his death, an urban legend started to circulate that Pardavé had been buried alive. The actor's niece María Elena Pardavé Robles confirmed that the rumor was a lie. She quoted "Joaquín Pardavé was not buried alive like many people believe. His remains have never been exhumed, not even when his wife died. She, my aunt, occupies a place in the same tomb, but my uncle's remains were never exhumed... we insist that his coffin has never been opened. That is how we categorically deny the rumors that circulate".[2]

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "PARDAVÉ Arce, Joaquín". Retrieved 11 September 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de Mexico - Biografia de Joaquin Pardave". Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
  3. ^ "Cine mexicano: Ahí está el detalle (1940)". Archived from the original on 23 September 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
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