Dec 20
'Almodóvar Girl' Marisa Paredes, Star of 'The Flower of My Secret,' 'All About My Mother' Dead at 78
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Popular Spanish actor Marisa Paredes has passed away at the age of 78. The Hollywood Reporter noted that Paredes, who was born on April 3, 1946, in the city of Madrid, was recalled as one of the country's "most iconic actors" by by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, which made her death known on Dec. 17.
Her career spanned more than six decades, during which time she racked up120 credits in film and TV, but she may best be known as the star of a number of Pedro Almodóvar movies. Indeed, THR said, in Spain Paredes "was known as 'an Almodóvar girl.'"
THR said that the out gay filmmaker first worked with Paredes in the 1983 film "Dark Habits" ("Entre tinieblas") where she played a drug-taking nun (one of a whole convent full).
After that, "they reunited for 'High Heels' (1991), in which she starred as the torch singer Becky," THR recounted, before adding that "Paredes earned a Goya Award nomination for her turn as a woman resistant to writing romance novels in 'The Flower of My Secret' (1995)."
"Also for Almodóvar," the entertainment news outlet said, "she played an actress in 'All About My Mother' (1999), a party guest in 'Talk to Her' (2002) and the servant and mother of Antonio Banderas' mad scientist in 'The Skin I Live In' (2011)."
Co-star and fellow Almodóvar frequent collaborator Antonio Banderas took to Instagram to memorialize Paredes. Posting a glamorous portrait of the actor, Banderas wrote in Spanish, "Heartbroken by the passing of Marisa Paredes, a great lady of acting."
"Dear friend, you have left us too soon 🖤," Banderas added.
The account insta__almodóvar also paid tribute, posting a photo from Paredes' "performance in 'Tacones Lejanos' (1991) as Becky Del Páramo, one of the most remembered and beloved roles with the director."
"She participated in six films by Pedro Almodóvar," the account noted, "becoming one of the most important actresses and one of the most recognized and representative faces of his filmography."
The Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain lionized Paredes by saying that "her body of work was defined by women who were strong, ambivalent, broken, passionate, enigmatic, but who were, above all, very human."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.