Armando Soto La Marina Biography

QUICK FACTS
Activity Actor
Real name Luis Armando Velázquez de León y Soto La Marina
Nationality Mexico
Birth October 1, 1909 (Durango – Mexico)
Death March 20, 1983 (Mexico City – Mexico)
BIOGRAPHY
The actor, Luis Armando Velázquez de León y Soto La Marina, was born in the city of Durango, Mexico, on October 1, 1909. As a young man he was a bullfighter, but he retired due to an accident. In 1927 he debuted as a comic strip actor. He participated in the political magazine “The World in Arms”, his sketch of “The Priest and the Altar Boy” was the favorite of the public and of General Lázaro Cárdenas.

In 1936 he debuted in the short film Los apuros del chicote and, since then, he participated in more than 120 films, achieving great recognition as Jorge Negrete’s adventure partner in various films, including Jalisco sings in Seville (1949).

He worked alongside great actors from the golden age of Mexican cinema such as Raúl de Anda, Pedro Armendáriz, Pedro Infante and Luis Aguilar. However, his strong and aggressive character caused problems both with his colleagues and with some producers. His taste for alcohol destabilized his life and work, causing him to have a serious car accident in 1946 that almost cost him his life.

In the late 1970s, he went on hunger strike outside the National Association of Actors (ANDA), protesting that film producers had forgotten about him.
He married four times, the first with Luz María Reyes, the second with Enedina Ibarra, the third with Aurora Medina and the fourth with María de la Salud, with whom he had eight children. He died on March 20, 1983, in Mexico City, victim of a heart attack.
THE BEGINNING