José Luis Coll

Spanish humorist, actor and writer. His father died when he was 1 year old, and his mother went into exile to Argentina after the Spanish Civil War was over, so he stayed in Cuenca with his brother, his uncle, his aunt and his grandparents, where he started his studies. Some years later he started studying Law, which he didn't finish, as he started to work for a journal in Cuenca and later in Radio Nacional de España. In 1955 he moved to Madrid to work as a secretary for César González Ruano, who presented him to Antonio Mingote and Álvaro de la Iglesia. Soon he started his collaboration in the weekly humor magazine 'Don José'. And later, he started acting for some period of time (the plays 'Ninette y un señor de Murcia', 'Amor', and 'Las mujeres sabias', and the musical shows 'Buenos días amor', and 'El baile de Savoy'). In 1959 he was collaborating with the journal La Codorniz, where he met Luis Sánchez Polack, with whom he would form some time later the comic duo 'Tip y Coll'. In 1961 he worked as a scriptwriter for several TV programs ('La tortuga perezosa', 'Aquí la Ponderosa', 'La vida secreta de Walter Gómez' and 'Sonría, por favor'). In 1962 he released in Madrid his play 'El sueño de unos locos de verano', and also wrote several scripts for TV and cinema ('Érase una vez... o dos', La garbanza negra, que en paz descanse... (1972)), together with Manuel Summers and Luis Sánchez Polack. This latter film gave the duo 'Tip y Coll' its trademark (odd clothing: formal, with a top hat for Tip and a bowler hat for Coll). In 1969 they started working together regularly (TV program 'Galas del sábado', play 'Qué bello es ser tonto', and other TV programs like 'El último café'). They worked together in a daily night club show in Madrid for 8 consecutive years, while Coll simultaneously collaborated in press releases. Their shows have always been a great success, but they also have been harsh with some current personalities, especially in politics, and that's the reason why they were censored many times. In 1981 he went back to TV with the program 'El colibrí', which wasn't on the air for long, and in 1985 he collaborated in the programs 'Como Pedro por su casa' and 'Esta noche Pedro', both directed by the humorist Pedro Ruiz. In 1988 he was nominated president of the Spanish Billiards Federation (he had been an amateur player to this sport since he was young), and in 1992 he was about to become part of the Authors' Society Board of Management, a post that he finally didn't get. In 1990 he started as a TV presenter in a private channel with the program 'Hablando se entiende la gente', whose success made it to be aired daily. He also collaborated in the same channel with the programs 'Querida Concha', together with Concha Velasco, and 'Este país necesita un repaso'. His books: 'Libro de poemas' (written in Cuenca in the first stage of his life), 'Epitafios' (1982), 'El hermano bastardo de Dios' (1984) (a sort of autobiography with the Spanish Civil War background, which would be later the story for the film The Bastard Brother of God (1986)), 'Eroticoll' (1991) (which won the Papagayo Award), 'El diccionario de Coll', 'Las dedicatorias de Coll' (1979), 'El libro de Tip y Coll' and 'Tipicoll spanish' (both ones written together with Luis Sánchez Polack), and the farce 'Otelo y el moro de Valencia'.