Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez, one of Spain’s most celebrated stars of stage and screen, has died at his home in Madrid after a long illness. He was 87.

The award-winning actor’s cinema career spanned the censorship of the Franco era to the anything-goes period that followed the dictator’s death. But performing to a live audience was how it began for Lopez Vazquez and tomorrow his body will be placed in the theatre where he started out as a teenager so the public can pay its final respects. It is for his work on the big screen that many will remember him. Lopez Vazquez starred in more than 200 films, making his movie debut in 1946. He played mainly comic parts at first but broadened his repertoire into drama too. ‘Travels with My Aunt’ with Dame Maggie Smith in 1972 was a successful international role while perhaps his best-known film was also made that year – the surreal horror ‘La Cabina’ or ‘The Telephone Box.’More about: Death, Spain

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