Luis Sandrini

Luis Sandrini (22 February 1905 – 5 July 1980) was a prolific Argentine comic film actor and film producer. Widely considered as one of the most respected and most acclaimed Argentine comedians by the public and critics. He has made over 80 appearances in film between 1933 and 1980.

He was born in the neighborhood of Caballito and was the son of Genovés immigrants. His father was a theatrical actor, and Luis began to work in a circus next to his parents, like clown. In the 1930s he entered the theatrical company of Enrique MuiñoandElías Isaac Alippi, where he met his first wife, the actress Chela Cordero. Made his debut in the cinema in 1933 acting in the first Argentine sound film Tango (film) (directed by Luis Moglia Barth) in which he worked with a great of the theater of magazines like Pepe Arias and the stars of the tango Libertad Lamarque, Azucena Maizani, and Tita Merello, with the last one he had a romance when they filmed the film Juan Tenorio. He also appeared on the radio, where he made Felipe, who was the prototype of Buenos Aires nice man, creation of Miguel Coronatto Paz, who was so successful that years later was taken to television on Channel 13, where he shared screen with other great comedians as Tato Bores, Alberto Olmedo, Pepe Biondi, José Marrone, Carlos Balá, Dringue Farías, and Juan Carlos Altavista,among others.

In the theater he made Cuando los duendes cazan perdices, then taken to the movies, and, behind the scenes, was astonished by the beauty of the young actress Malvina Pastorino whom he married. This resounding success made him become the most representative figure of the golden age of Argentine cinema; which then became entrenched in the film that inaugurated the "hotel accommodation series of the sixties", which was Daniel Tinayre's La Cigarra no es un Bicho.

His last appearances were in costumbristas familiar films of Enrique Carreras. He died when he filmed the movie, My Family's Beautiful!, by Palito Ortega, where he worked alongside another great of the show, Niní Marshall.

Luis Sandrini knew to conquer the heart not only of the people of his country but also the rest of the Hispanic world due to the great characterizations of his personages, by which the films in which this great comedian act are known by all like the films of Sandrini, standing out from the rest of the cast and even overshadowing the directors of the films. Even famous expressions of his characters have passed into history, like that well-known of his film "Cuando los duendes cazan perdices": "¡La vieja ve los colores!" (Literally: "The old lady sees the colors!").

He was highly praised for his characterizations and his characters have given people talk even many years after the first releases of his films. The TV programPeter Capusotto y sus videos features a character played by Diego Capusotto called Bombita Rodríguez, who is believed to be inspired by Professor Tirabombas or Professor Hippie, both of Sandrini.

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010, recalls Sandrini in a passage in his novel Who Killed Palomino Molero?: "Lituma and the lieutenant had been at the movies, watching an Argentine film by Luis Sandrini, which made people laugh a lot, but not at them." Mexican comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños, Chespirito, in his memoirs, says about Sandrini:

"He is an Argentine who should have official residence in the Olympus of comedians: Mr. Luis Sandrini, an actor in the full extent of the word, who brings us laughs like tears. It had been my idol since childhood and it always remained." -Roberto Gómez Bolaños

Among the prizes and recognitions that he obtained they count the Argentine Academy of Cinematography Arts and Sciences Award to the best actor in 1950 por The Fault the Other One Had, and a special mention in 1949 "for his brilliant performance in the Argentine cinema", the Silver Condor Award for Best Comedian in 1950 for Don Juan Tenorio and Juan Globo, the Silver Condor for Best Actor in 1954 for La Casa Grande and in 1972 for La Valija, and the 1981 Honour Konex Award, the latter posthumously.