Francisco Rodríguez Iglesias, artistically known as Arévalo, has died at his home in Valencia at the age of 76. According to Semana magazine, citing family sources, he was found dead in his home by his son, although the cause of death is currently unknown. The Union of Actors and Actresses confirmed the interpreter's death by posting a picture on social media a few minutes later. “Rest in peace,” they wrote in X.
Arévalo was born in Madrid but grew up in Catarroja, a municipality in the province of Valencia. He began his career in the entertainment world as a part of El Bombero Torero, a bullfighting comedy show. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he gained notoriety for his “Gangs and Sissies” jokes, which he recorded on around thirty cassette tapes purchased at gas stations. He also appeared in several films, series and plays. He made his film debut in 1981 with the film His Majesty La Laughter, but he gained great popularity in 1983 when he began to appear again weekly on the famous TVE program Un, dos, tres…. He later went through other programs while performing in nightclubs and on stages throughout Spain. He continued with several comedy films and a few television series. With a career that spanned five decades, Arévalo became one of Spain's most popular comedians in the 1980s.
In 1997, Antena 3 offered him his own space, Arévalo y Cía, where he performed a series of sketches accompanied by actors and comedians such as Manolo Cal, José Carabias, Javivi, Malena Gracia, Marta de Pablo and Idoia Rossi.
Arévalo's jokes have aged very poorly and today his thick and insulting humor squeaks. But it was a different time, the 1980s, and his style was immensely popular. One of the representations of his repertoire couldn't be clearer: “Let's laugh, let's laugh at Arévalo's jokes. “From Andalusians, from ladybugs, from gangsters and from truck drivers.”
He took part in several television competitions in the 2000s. In 2005, he took part in the reality show La Granja. Between 2007 and 2009, he frequently attended the Canal Sur Televisión show “The Afternoon with María,” hosted by María del Monte, where he told jokes and made sketches. In 2011 he appeared alongside Bertín Osborne in the play Dos Mellizos and later he also appeared in Sábado Deluxe.
In recent years, Arévalo has been very active on social networks, where he often shared photos from his everyday life and meetings with celebrities. This aspect caused a dispute with his friend Bertín Osborne in 2017, after the comedian published a photo of a paella that featured, among others, Osborne, King Emeritus Juan Carlos and Infanta Elena. According to Arévalo himself on television, neither Bertín nor the royal family themselves liked its publication. Months later, however, they publicly reconciled during the broadcast of the program Mi casa es la tuya, hosted by Osborne.