Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Pablito Calvo

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Pablo ‘Pablito’ Calvo Hidalgo was born into a modest family in Madrid, Spain on March 16, 1948. He was one of the most popular child prodigies in Spanish cinema, endowed with a naturalness and freshness not very common in this type of child artist. He arrived on the big screen almost by chance, when the Chamartín Studios made a call to select the boy who would play the mythical film by Ladislao Vajda, “Marcelino, pan y vino” and at only eight years old he reached stardom. The international resonance of the film also made it very popular in Europe, especially in Italy, where it reached really impressive popularity quotas, being acclaimed at the Cannes and Berlin festivals. However, it took him two years to get back in front of the cameras, and when he did the success was much less. Thus, he returned to shoot the films “My Uncle Hyacinth” and “An Angel Passed Through Brooklyn”, with Peter Ustinov, and traveled to Italy to share the stage with the comedian Toto in “Toto and Pablito”. After three more films with hardly any repercussions he decided to step away from cinema at the age of sixteen. Retiring from public life, he did his military service in aviation and began studying industrial engineering. In his hometown he married Juana Olmedo in 1976 and dedicated himself to the textile business, but having failed, the couple then decided to move to the Levantine coast, where he prospered in the real estate sector.

In 1979 his son, another Pablito Calvo, was born in Alicante. There Pablo senior died on February 1, 2000, as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage.

The fact that long after he is still one of the most remembered characters in Spanish cinema, only corroborates his mythical trail.

Pablito Calvo made only one Euro-western where he starred as Juanito Meza in 1958’s “Juanito”.

CALVO, Pablito (aka Pablo Calvo) (Pablo Calvo Hidalgo) [3/16/1948, Madrid, Madrid, Spain – 2/1/2000, Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain (brain hemorrhage)] – film, TV actor, married to Juana Olmedo [1946-    ] (1976-2000) father of Pablito Calvo Jr. [1979-    ].

Juanito – 1958 (Juanito Meza)