Legendary Spanish character actor Aldo Sambrell is in guarded condition at Hospital General de Alicante in Madrid after a series of mini-strokes. The 79 year old villain of many Spaghetti Westerns is a good friend of mine and I hope he can recover from this and get his health back. Aldo appeared in all of the Leone westerns and Sergio was the godfather of Aldo's son.
He is such a part of my own collective movie consciousness as well as cutting across as genres and historical categories in everything from mainstream Hollywood features, Eurowesterns, Jess Franco villains, war movies, crime movies, always excellent, meorable, totally invested in his roles. He helped me with some valuable information when I was working on a Manuel Cano article years ago. I wish him well. Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteSad that I had to. I've met Aldo several times since 2003. Twice in Madrid and several times in Los Angeles. He knows his place in Spanish film history yet comes has a down to earth man. He drove out to the Madrid airport and to spend an hour with me between a connecting flight to Almeria. The first time I met him he was taken back when I started to name many of the Spanish character actors Antonio Molino, Rojo, Frank Brana, Lorenzo Robledo etc. as I don't think we really knew who they and he was. When I mentioned Luis Barboo who had recntly died I could see a tear in his eye as his wife was Luis' agent. He knew we were real fans of the Spaghetti westerns and of his work. He got me to drink Tequila with him that night and we had a memorable time discussing the good old days. I hope he makes it through this difficult time.
ReplyDeleteAmen, to all those sentiments. Aldo is simply one of the greats. Get well soon Amigo!
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