Actor Celso Bugallo dies at 78

The actor Celso Bugallo Aguiar (Sanxenxo, 1947) ha died this weekend at 78 years old. Among other roles, he is known for playing José, Ramón Sampedro’s brother in ‘In the sea’a role that gave him the Goya for best supporting actor in 2005.

Born in the Sanxenxin parish of Vilalonga, he will be fired this Sunday in Pontevedra strict family privacy. The Galician lived part of his youth in Bilbao and Logroño, where he worked as an amateur actor and created the group JUBY (United Youth of the Yagüe Neighborhood). In the same decade, already in Galicia, he co-founded the Olimpo theater group.

In the nineties, he took another step with the creation of the Pontevedra Actors Training Classroom, which carried out various productions. After a long career in the theater, his film debut at 52 years old in ‘The language of butterflies’by José Luis Cuerda, in 1999.

Within an extensive filmography, he has worked with the award-winning directors Alejandro Amenábar y Fernando León de Aranoawith whom he filmed up to three films, including ‘Mondays in the sun’. The last film they shot together, ‘The good boss’led him to receive his last Goya nomination, in 2022.

Bugallo also participated in various Galician productionslike ‘Trote’, by Xacio Baño, or ‘A illa das tumbas’, by Paula Cons. Television was another medium that he dominated and some people will remember him, for example, for playing Sito Miñanco’s father in ‘Fariña’.

“A GIANT OF THE GALICIAN AND IBERIAN SCENE”

The news of the actor’s death has sparked sad reactions inside and outside the sector. The Galician Audiovisual Academy has dismissed him as a “reference of cinema and theater” and the Association of Actors and Performers (AISGE), which published an autobiography of his, has established him as a “giant of the Galician and Iberian scene.”

For his part, the mayor of Pontevedra, Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, has regretted the passing of “one of the most mythical and beloved faces” of the city. “Que a terra che sexa leve, Celso,” he said goodbye through his social networks.

The Minister of Culture, José López Campos, remembered him as “a unique actor, capable of making a film or play great with his humble and talented contribution.” “The scene inside and outside of Galicia loses a master on stage and in front of the camera,” he lamented.