Remembering Alfonso Balcazar

Alfonso Balcázar Granda was born on March 2, 1926 in Barcelona, Spain. His entire family was rooted in the world of cinema. He and his brothers founded Balcázar, S.A. Productions and were an early influence on westerns filmed in Spain. They also founded Filmax, a distribution company, which distributed the films Balcázar, S.A. produced. This guaranteed them a market for the films they made from their production half of the company. Along with his brother Jaime Jesus they both wrote and directed most of the films which consisted of westerns and low budget action and horror films. Among the more than 20 Euro-westerns Alfonso produced, directed, or wrote screenplays for were “Viva Carrancho!” (1965), “A Pistol for Ringo” and “The Return of Ringo” (1965), “Yankee” (1966), “Clint the Stranger” (1967), and “The Return of Clint the Stranger” (1972). In all, Alfonso directed over 40 films often under the pseudonym Al Bagran. Alfonso died on September 28, 1993 in Sitges, Barcelona, Spain. Today we remember Alfonso Balcázar on what would have been his 85th birthday.