The Pontevedra actor Celso Bugallo Aguiar, died this Saturday in Pontevedra at the age of 78. Prolific actor cinema, theater and television, was one of the most talented secondary actors on the national film scene, and the feature film out to sea gave him recognition and Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Born on January 1, 1947 in Sanxenxo (Pontevedra), he had extensive experience in theater and his first performances date back to the seventies in Logroño. Member of the independent groups Adefesio Teatro Estudio and Lope de Rueda, he was the founder and director of the JUBY (United Youth of the Yagüe Neighborhood), who won the National Theater Comedy Award in 1976 with The flutist’s altarpiece (Jordi Teixidor Martínez).
At the end of that decade he co-founded a theater group in Galicia called Olympus. In 1995, he founded the Pontevedra Actor Training Class to train performers based on Stanislavsky’s theories and directed productions, most of them in Galician, such as Prelude to theater, The harm that tobacco does o The awakening.
He debuted on the big screen with The language of butterflies (1999, José Luis Cuerda), when he was already 52 years old, which was followed Mondays in the sun (2002, Fernando León de Aranoa), and for which he was awarded the Mestre Mateo Revelation Award and the Chano Piñeiro Award for best supporting actor. The film won five Goyas and the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Festival.
Goya for Best Supporting Actor
Later, he participated in The carpenter’s pencil (2003, Antón Reixa) and The life that awaits you (2004, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón), among others. However, national recognition came with the film out to sea (2004, Alejandro Amenábar). His interpretation of Ramón Sampredro‘s brother gave him the Goya for Best Supporting Actor and the award from the Spanish actors association (Unión de Actores).
It rolled some time later Narrow (2005, Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo) and Salvador (2006, Manuel Huerga). The corporal of the Civil Guard of a village in Castilla y León on the ribbon The night of the sunflowers (2006, Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo) is another of his valued performances and for which he won the award for best supporting actor from the Circle of Cinematographic Writers of Spain.
In Modesty (2007, David and Tristán Ulloa) was among the cast of main actors, having leading roles in ashes from heaven (2008, José Antonio Quirós), considered the first Spanish environmental filmy Amador (2010, Fernando León de Aranoa), a film which tells the raw story of an escape forward with subtle touches of humor.
In between it rolled The inner island (2009, Félix Sabroso and Dunia Ayaso), tragicomic film about the relationship difficulties of several members of a family; and Guts (2009, Samuel Martín Mateos, Andrés Luque Pérez), black comedy full of picaresque and unscrupulous characters, with Carmelo Gómez and Hugo Silva.
Latest works by Celso Bugallo
He also participated in titles such as Crebinsky (2011, Enrique Otero), The beach of the drowned (2015, Gerardo Herrero), adaptation of the novel of the same name by Domingo Villar from Vigo; Trot (2018, Xacio Baño) and The art of returning (2020, Pedro Collantes), alongside Macarena García, Nacho Sánchez and Ingrid García Jonsson.
for the movie The good boss (2021, Fernando León de Aranoa, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor both in the Goya and Feroz awards.
He has also worked on multiple television series and films, such as Land of Miranda (2001-07, TVG), spring tides (2002, TVG), Kidnapped in Georgia (2003, Antón Reixa); Omar Martínez (2005, Pau Martínez), Paco’s men (2010, Antena 3) or flour (2018, Antena 3).
Celso Bugallo, who I lived without television for 25 years because in his opinion he kept a clean mind, was married and was the father of a daughter, who gave him a granddaughter.
Farewell
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 Angel Fernández Loreshas lamented the passing of “one of the most mythical and beloved faces” of the city. “Que a terra che sexa leve, Celso (may the earth be light to you, Celso)”, he said goodbye through his social networks.
The Minister of Culture of the Xunta de Galicia, José López Campos, He has 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.
