Carmen Sevilla (92) has not died, the one who has died is María del Carmen García Galisteo (Seville, 1930) in the Jiménez Díaz Foundation hospital in Madrid, where she had been transferred a few days ago from the residence where he lived, in Aravaca. Last night she suffered a multi-organ failure linked to the Alzheimer’s she had been suffering from for years. Carmen Sevilla will continue to live in the memory of several generations captivated by her candidness and charm: beautiful actress, popular singer and television presenter, her tender mischievousness and simple naturalness dazzled beyond measure: she was Carmen Sevilla, a star.
The great artist achieved popularity already at the end of the 1940s – she made her film debut at only 19 years old – and made it last until the beginning of the 1970s thanks to roles in films such as Jalisco canta en Sevilla (with Jorge Negrete, 1949), La hermana San Sulpicio (1952), Violetas imperiales (1952), La fierecilla do mada (1955), La venganza (1958) – nominated for an Oscar – or the Hollywood King of Kings (1961), as Maria Magdalena Tapes such as El balcón de la luna (1962), Camino del Rocío (1966) and many others continued while he recorded fifteen records of cobla, bolero, tango and xotis.
The proverbial beauty of her face, illuminated by a candid smile, won the sympathy of women and men instantly. In 1961 she married the musician and composer Augusto Algueró, with whom she had a son, Augusto José (1964). Carmen Sevilla underwent two abortions in order not to compromise her oversaturated artistic schedule, a free decision that years later she confessed to regretting and that she would have loved to have more children.
She divorced Augusto Algueró in 1974, due to his infidelities. During this decade he shot Enseñar a un sinvergüenza (1970), El techo de cristal (1971), Marco Antonio y Cleopatra (1972), together with Charlton Heston, or No es bueno que el hombre esté solo (1974).
In the mid-seventies, the new open-air cinema ignored her by mutual agreement, her artistic activity diminished and the public forgot her for fifteen years… until “el cuponcito” arrived. It was 1991 and Telecinco had the genius of hiring Carmen Sevilla to read every evening on television the prize-winning number of the ONCE coupon draw live rigorously: the Telecupón. The success was overwhelming, based on the unique personality of Carmen Sevilla, her funny mistakes, the grace of her banter, her domestic naturalness, her forgetfulness (unforgettable the evening she appeared in slippers on the set!) , his slips of the tongue and his delicious sincerity: he explained how happy he was living in the countryside, where he looked after his “little sheep”. Married in 1985 to Vicente Patuel, they lived bucolicly from their livestock farm in the field of Herrera del Duque (Badajoz), and she recounted her love for her sheep.
Those of us who watched every evening “el cuponcito” (as she dubbed her broadcast, until 1997) still smile when we remember her hilarious telephone conversations with television viewers or her beauty secrets: one day she showed the cameras a band-aid on the skin of the neck to stretch the skin of the face.
Her endearing presence reminded me of my mother and that is why I offered her my arm on the day in 1992 when we walked together into the auditorium in Miami, from where Telecinco was broadcasting a gala commemorating the fifth centenary of the discovery of ‘ America. High honor!
