Archive image of journalist and film critic Carlos Pumares.David Fernández (EFE)
Journalist and film critic Carlos Pumares Pardo, who became famous with the legendary radio and television show Polvo de Estrellas, died this Thursday in Madrid at the age of 80, family sources reported. Pumares, one of the most renowned critics of the seventh art, for which he also worked as a screenwriter, also appeared in several films as an actor and wrote numerous books such as A Perfect Marriage and So Near and Far.
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The journalist’s own profile on the social network “It has always been like this and from today it will be Stardust.” This morning, social networks are filled with numerous expressions of affection for the journalist, from well-known representatives of the celluloid world to ordinary film-loving citizens.
Born on September 29, 1943 in the Biscay town of Portugalete (Basque Country), Pumares had a degree in physics, but his professional career took a different direction. In the 1970s he wrote the screenplays for the films La casa de las chivas (1972, León Klimovsky), Marriage Separation (1973, Angelino Fons), A Forbidden Woman (1974, José Luis Ruiz Marcos) and The Strange Love of Vampires (1977 , León Klimovsky) and the television series The Hotel of a Thousand and One Stars (1978–79, TVE), this time with Joaquín Parejo.
He worked as a film consultant for the program Laclave (1976–85 on RTVE; 1990–93 on Antena 3 TV), hosted and directed by journalist José Luis Balbín. A film served as an introduction to the topics that guests then debated, with questions asked by audience members over the phone toward the end of the room. The program was novel because it allowed, for the first time on Spanish television, the consideration of various contradictory points of view on topics previously considered taboo (Opus Dei, NATO, the murder of Federico García Lorca). In the early 1980s he began hosting the program about the world of cinema on Antena 3 Radio Polvo de estrellas, which was later broadcast on Antena 3 TV and Onda Cero.
After discontinuing Stardust on the Onda Cero network, Pumares collaborated on the Terra portal with a space called El monolito de Pumares. In it he gave answers to Internet users’ questions about the world of cinema. The room remained on the portal until summer 2004. He also worked as a guest on the Martian Chronicles program until it disappeared in July 2005.
Pumares has written film criticism in the newspaper “La Razón”, was present at Radio Voz La salud natural, a daily newspaper dedicated to naturopathy, maintained a blog to comment on news from the world of cinema and was a contributor and member of “Morning” . show Sin ir further afield (Aragón TV) as well as the weekly program Veo Cine on the Veo 7 channel.
He appeared as an actor in FBI: Frikis Busca Incordiar (Javier Cárdenas, 2004) and in Torrente 3, El Protector (Santiago Segura, 2005). He also took part in several collaborations on the show Sálvame and was a member of the jury on the Telecinco show “Mira qué jump!”. He also published books with Manuel Villegas López, Jaime Salom and José Luis Garci: La casa de las chivas (1971); with Hugo Pratt: The Secret of Tristán Bantam: Appointment in Bahia (1971); with Alberto Solsona, José Luis Garci and Adolfo Castaño: The Tales of Popeye (1973); A Perfect Marriage (1973); So Near and Far (1973); The Colonizers: Film Plot (1974); with José Luis Garci, Adolfo Castaño and Alberto Solsona: The Stories of Rosario (1974); and with Dick Fulton and Adolfo Castaño: Mandrake: Dimension X (1974).
With Lázaro Irazábal he published Una de Many (1974); with Juan José Daza del Castillo and Abelardo Empecinado: At Dawn (1975); with Enrique Herreros, Juan José Daza del Castillo and Abelardo Empecinado: El Chalet de los Geranios (1975); with Juan José Daza del Castillo: Night of the Vampires (1975) and collaboration with Domingo López in: Wild Wild East (2015). Iván Reguera and Juan José Aparicio examined the character of Pumares and published the book Carlos Pumares: a cry in the night (2006).
Presentation of Radio Voz, a new national radio station, in 1994. From left to right: Carlos Pumares, Bieito Ramonde, Miguel Ángel García Juez and José Luis Balbín.Claudio Alvarez
Director Santiago Segura published in X: “He was a peculiar critic. A true movie lover and a very funny character. “It was a disappointment to hear the news of his death today and to know that we won’t be drinking coffee and talking about cinema again like we did when we met at a festival.”
“My deepest condolences go out to his family and to all of you who, like me, had him in your gallery of people who in some way enriched our lives,” Segura added. The journalist and writer Juan Luis Cano also emphasized: “It made me very sad. He was a lovable grump who knew the history of cinema like no other and was very cultured. His constant rage was a pose created by the character that overwhelmed him. We laughed a lot with him and with him.”
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