Marisa Paredes, the star of Pedro Almodóvar’s High Heels and The Flower Of My Secret, has died aged 78.
Paredes’ extensive career spanned nearly 80 feature films and a similar number of television productions over six decades.
Paredes also served as president of the Spanish Film Academy from 2000-2003 and received the industry’s highest awards, including an honorary Goya for lifetime achievement in 2018, the National Cinematography Award in 1996, and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts in 2007.
Her final film, road movie Emergency Exit, was directed by Luis Miñarro; it filmed earlier this year and is still to be released.
One of Parades’ earliest significant roles was in The Life Goes On (1965), directed by Fernando Fernán Gómez, one of Spain’s greatest actors and directors, with whom she shared a deep professional and personal bond.
Paredes honed her craft through television and theatre in the following years, gaining widespread recognition and popularity.
Her breakthrough came with Fernando Trueba’s directorial debut Ópera Prima (1980), and her international acclaim was solidified through her collaborations with Almodóvar. Beyond her iconic performances in High Heels and The Flower Of My Secret, Paredes also featured in Almodóvar’s Academy Award-winning All About My Mother (1999), Talk To Her (2002), and The Skin I Live In (2010).
The global success of these films opened doors for Paredes to star in further internationally acclaimed works, including Life Is Beautiful (1997) by Roberto Benigni, Deep Crimson (1996) by Arturo Ripstein, and The Devil’s Backbone (2001) by Guillermo del Toro. She also collaborated with many international directors including Raoul Ruiz, Alain Tanner, Cristina Comencini and Manoel de Oliveira.
The actor cemented her legacy in Spanish cinema with standout performances in Jaime Rosales’ Petra and Agustí Villaronga’s In A Glass Cage.
Paredes is survived by her long-time partner, Chema Prado, producer and director of Spain’s Film Archive for 27 years. She is also survived by her daughter, María Isasi, whose father was filmmaker Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi (The Summertime Killer, 1972).
In a final interview with Spain’s public broadcaster TVE in June, Paredes reflected with pride on her humble beginnings as “the daughter of a doorkeeper,” her deep sense of class and female consciousness, and spoke of going on a hunger strike when she was 15 that convinced her father to support her dream of becoming an actor.
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