actor and director Rudolph Beban, who for some years had been hospitalized in a nursing home, died this Saturday at the age of 84. From the networks of the Argentine Association of Actors they expressed: “With great pain we say goodbye to the actor and director. His extensive artistic career includes unforgettable works in film, theater and television. Affiliated to our union since 1962. We accompany his children, family members and loved ones of his in this difficult moment”.
None other than the legendary director and singer Leonardo Favio once declared that Rodolfo Bebán had been “the best clay he had in his hands”noting that much of its success in Juan Moreira’s superb composition had lain in a curious source of inspiration: Toshirō Mifune in Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films.
His career was extremely eclectic and his works took him through all those disciplines in which any interpreter would like to perform: theater, cinema, television. His real surname was Tilli, but he adopted the same one used by his father – also an actor – Miguel Bebán, whom he used to call formally by his first name. Quite well known is that anecdote in which her parent asked her almost as a Chicana: “What merit did you do to call yourself Bebán?” And he answered: “Nothing”. Despite a difficult bond, with her father in the role of director, she would perform one of his most outstanding performances in Diary of a madman (inspired by the famous story of Nikolai Gógol).
Bebán began in repertory theater in 1955 with director Pedro Escudero in music in the night. It might be said that his career began almost as an adolescent mischief, when with a friend they read a poster in the Municipal Theater of Morón announcing: “Extras needed for Fuenteovejuna”. He was first an extra and then got the lead in the new project. However, he recently gained massive recognition from the hand of the author Nené Cascallar, who in the ’60s chose him to play one of the leading men in the series. love has a woman’s face, as the historical television couple of the characters played by Bárbara Mujica and Thelma Biral. The telenovela was aired consecutively from 1964 to 1971 and figures of the stature of Norma Aleandro, Arnaldo André, Federico Luppi, Ana María Picchio, Sergio Renánamong many others.
In that same period he acted as Romeo in the television version of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, directed by María Herminia Avellaneda and Evangelina Salazar in the role of Juliet. Del Bardo also performed Hamlet (directed by Rodolfo Graziano) and othello. And in 1978 she faced another British classic, this time created by the great Emily Brontë: together with Fernanda Mistral and Alicia Bruzzo she starred in the miniseries Wuthering Heights. Among his most remembered performances for the small screen are also Malevo (1972), Wrist (1973), The cat (1976) y Nazarene Kings (1984).
On stage, Bebán stood out, above all, for his role as a comedian. He was part of the National Comedy of the Cervantes Theater and during the ’60s and ’70s he participated in projects alongside great names of the time: The Lovers with Susana Fields, Fernanda Mistral, Lydia Lamaison, Adrianita and Norberto Suarez; the odd couple with Palito Ortega; let’s live a dream together with Claudia Lapacó; butterflies are freewith Ana María Campoy, China Zorrilla, Gabriela Gili and a young Susana Giménez; Lorenzaccio, by Alfred de Musset together with Alfredo Alcón; a theatrical version of Trapped without exit with Fernanda Mistral and Carlos Carella; Y saber, by Pacho O’Donnell, which took up the controversial figure of Juan Manuel de Rosas. The author of this last piece remembered it yesterday: saber It was premiered at the Payró Theater in 2004. Then I met Rodolfo Bebán, a great actor and wonderful person, owner of an exquisite culture and remarkable loyalty to his convictions. He made an effort to be a good actor and dedicated talent and perseverance to it, but he always avoided fame and farandulesque display, jealous custodian of his impeccable intimacy. I learned to love him and admire him.”
On the big screen, Bebán starred in films such as Arm in arm and down the street (1966, by Enrique Carreras with Evangelina Salazar), The piranhas (1967, by Luis Garcia Berlanga), The boys from before did not use gel (1969, by Enrique Carreras) and Juan Manuel de Rosas (1972, by Manuel Antín), in which he once once more brought the caudillo to life. However, the great consecration in cinema was hand in hand with the leading role in John Moreira (1973, by Leonardo Favio), the one for which he had been inspired by the Kurosawa samurai and for which he received recognition from both the public and specialized critics. The film became one of the highest-grossing films in Argentine history and Bebán once confessed that Favio would never have noticed it if he hadn’t seen it on TV.
The job not only gave him prestige and popularity but also important loves, beyond the frequent rumors that associated him with figures with whom he shared scenes in fiction. Bebán was in a relationship with the model Liz Amaral Paz, with whom he had his daughter Dolores. Years later he married actress Claudia Lapacó, with whom he had his children Rodrigo and Diego. And later he became a couple with another famous actress of the time, Gabriela Gili, with whom he had his children Facundo, Daniela and Pedro. The coexistence lasted 17 years, until the early death of Gili in 1991 with only 46 years. The last coexistence that was publicly known was with the actress Adriana Castro –25 years younger than him– and it ended in 1995.
Bebán was a prestigious actor but at the time of his peak of fame he may have suffered what many actors with a beautiful face and large bearing must suffer at some point in their careers: popularity with unmanageable levels of massiveness, the permanent siege of fans and that right over the idol that many arrogate to themselves in a somewhat despotic way. The actor resigned moments of paternity and daily tranquility for that effervescence, he stopped doing things that he liked a lot like dancing tango or appearing in fencing tournaments. With the recognition had also come that dehumanization to which stars (and, in particular, leading men) are usually exposed: he had ceased to be Rodolfo Bebán and had become “the guy from the soap opera.” But –it is known– that is usually the price of fame.
The actor used to define himself as shy (hence his reticence towards the media and the interview situation, perhaps as a consequence of those sufferings in his youth), he identified the theater as his great love and missed the television programming of his time. That is why, perhaps, faced with several offers for TV at the end of his career, he simply said “no”. Argentina usually enjoys binary contests (River / Boca, Peronism / Radicalism, Soda Stereo / Los Redondos) and Bebán was not exempt from that: from his work in Lorenzaccio There were rumors of a certain rivalry with Alfredo Alcón, which he himself took care to deny. When his colleague died, Bebán said that the actors had lost a beautiful mirror in which to look at themselves. Now they have lost another.
