José Solé (actor)
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July 28, 1929
José Solé | |
|---|---|
 Solé in 2009 | |
| Born | José Solé Nájera July 28, 1929 |
| Died | February 15, 2017 (aged 87) Mexico City, Mexico |
| Occupations | Stage actor and director |
| Years active | 1946–2010 |
José Solé (July 28, 1929 – February 15, 2017)[1] was a Mexican theater director, stage actor, and set designer whose career extended over six decades. His interest in theater began during childhood in a small community then outside of Mexico City proper. Although he acted some small parts in movies, his theater career began while doing formal theater training, first in Mexico then in France. He worked to promote theater in Mexico, which did not experience the kind of governmental support that the other arts did after the Mexican Revolution, performing in and directing a wide variety of plays, as well as directing theaters and even the theatrical division of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Institute of Fine Arts). He received recognition for both acting and directing early in his career, but major awards such as Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes (National Prize for Arts and Sciences) in the 2000s.[2]
José Solé (full name José Solé Nájera) was born to María Magdalena Nájera and José Solé, a Spanish refugee of an upper-class family, in a community called Mixcoac.[3] At that time, Mixcoac was separate from Mexico City, a small town with farms, stone paved streets and an economy based on providing produce to the nearby capital.[3]
His introduction to theater came through a street performance in the small town, Solé was restless and the activity impressed him, deciding early to go into show business despite his family's lack of connections with this world.[3] When he was seven his father gave him a set for a puppet theater, which he loved enough that his parents decided to take it from him as punishment during vacations after he failed classes at school.[4]
His early experience in acting came from forming a theater group in middle school[5] and when he was older, taking on small character parts in movies.[1][6] He then went on to study formally, first at the School of Theater Arts (Escuela de Arte Teatral) of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) .[6] In 1956 he traveled to Paris to study scene direction with Rene Dupoy on scholarship from the French government.[4][6] He also studied set design at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda".[5]
His career in theater began in 1946 and continued uninterrupted until he announced his retirement in 2010.[7]
In the 1990s he had a laryngectomy, requiring the use of an electrolarynx.[4]