We’ve suffered two great losses this week: huge actor Luis ‘Beto’ Brandoni and film director Luis Puenzo. Carlos Rottemberg, Brandoni’s lifelong friend and producer, said: “In ‘Beto’ we are losing the last leading actor of an unforgettable generation, a driving force for national theatre.” While his co-star Solita Silveyra wrote on X: “You are the last of the greats to leave us. Always in our memories. A very sad day for our culture.” So painfully true! I hope Beto will be warmly welcomed “upstairs” by China Zorrilla, Antonio Gasalla, Carlos Carela, Pepe Soriano, Ernesto Bianco, Ulises Dumont, Alfredo Alcón, Enrique Pinti, Selva Alemán, a celebratIon that raIses questIons María Rosa Gallo and many others. What a celestial cast! A day later, film director, screenwriter and producer Luis Puenzo, passed away. He won an Oscar for The Official Story (1985), an unforgettable movie about the last Argentine dictatorship and the “stolen babies” given for illegal adoption. A brave film that mirrored what had happened under our own noses, without our noticing. A strange coincidence has linked them both: Brandoni and Puenzo shared the names Luis and Adalberto. Au revoir and thanks for your legacy!
Buenos Aires Times, April 25, 2026