Comedian Fernando Esteso dies at 80

The actor and comedian Fernando Esteso died this morning at the La Fe university hospital in Valencia at the age of 80 due to a series of respiratory problems that he had been suffering for a few weeks, as confirmed by his representative to Europa Press.

Esteso was born on January 14, 1945 in Zaragoza, into a family of joteros, where he debuted at the age of six as ‘El Niño de la Jota’ and where he developed in the variety theater. He would soon become one of the most recognized showbiz characters in the country.

In the 60s, at the age of nineteen, he moved to Madrid and began to have an impact in theater and television. Her film debut came with ‘Jealousy, Love and Common Market’ in 1973 and a year later her first leading role would come in ‘Onofre’ (1974), a comedy with Luisa María Delgado, Bárbara Rey and Ágata Lys.

However, his fame came in the late 70s, when he teamed up with Andrés Pajares in what was one of the most profitable comic duos in Spanish cinema. They filmed nine films and formed one of the strongest couples on the small and big screen until they went their separate ways. Under the direction of Mariano Ozores, they starred in massive hits such as ‘Los bingueros’ (1979) or ‘Yo did a Roque III’ (1980).

After almost ten years of constant work in Spanish cinema, mainly playing comic characters with great box office success, he starred in ‘Love does have a cure’, by Javier Aguirre, in 1991. In 1993, having almost permanently retired from cinema, he worked at Telecinco, where he presented La rouleta de la Fortuna and Veraneando with Bertín Osborne and Remedios Cervantes.

Although he was from Aragon, Esteso had resided in Torrevieja (Alicante) for decades. He was a regular at the Fallas and a regular artist in the programming of local theaters.