José Suárez

José Lisardo Suárez Sánchez was born in Trubia (Asturias, Spain) on Sept 9th.1919. He was raised in Oviedo until in 1927 the family moved to Logroño. In 1935 after returning to Asturias his father died and he left school urged to find work. Only 16 when the Spanish Civil War broke out, he entered the Army on the National side, then the Falange. He joined the Legionary Corps (la Legión), and finally volunteered for the División Azul (German infantry division fighting communism) to Russia, returning to Spain in 1943. After the war ended he got a job at the Asturian railways. A well-known Spanish director, Gonzalo Delgrás, selected him after a casting to star in his next film, Altar mayor (1944). It became a success and the start of a long career. Some of his early films were Oro y marfil (1947), La niña de Luzmela (1950), Historia de una escalera (1950), a secondary role in Dawn of America (1951) and then came the young policeman in Criminal Squad (1950). This film became sort of a trademark for him, and from then on he would often play police roles and hard-boiled characters becoming his tall, reserved and dark looks. That same year, 1950, he married his Asturian girlfriend María Luisa, they would have a daughter. He received an award for his role in An Impossible Crime (1954) and would be one of the football players in Once pares de botas (1954). He made Señora ama (1955) with Dolores del Río and then came Main Street (1956) with Betsy Blair, maybe his most well known film, for which he would receive the Triunfo award as best actor. The success of this film at the Venice festival opened him the doors to the Italian cinema. He got leading roles in films like La sfida (1958), directed by Francesco Rosi, and The Magistrate (1959), directed by Luigi Zampa. He would go on playing mostly detective stories, drama, westerns and some comedies in Spanish and European productions. In 1971 he was elected mayor and local head of the Movimiento (Franco's regime only political party) for Aller, Asturias, and left Madrid for his homeland, building a house in Moreda where he died after a previous stroke (thrombosis) in 1981. His last role was in 1977 in a popular TV series (Curro Jiménez (1976)).