Adan Canto, the Mexican actor known for his roles in television series such as “The Cleaning Lady” and “Designated Survivor” as well as his role as Sunspot in the film “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” died on Monday. He was 42.
His death was confirmed by his publicist Jennifer Allen, who said the cause was appendix cancer. She didn't say where he died.
In an acting career that spanned more than a decade, Mr. Canto played a variety of roles, including an angry criminal desperate for control, a confident politician and a fiery comic hero.
Mr. Canto said in a 2013 interview with Collider that he “has always been fascinated by people, their psychology, their drives and trying to understand them.”
In “The Cleaning Lady,” which premiered on Fox in 2022, Mr. Canto played gangster Arman Morales, who recruits a woman, played by Elodie Yung, into his criminal organization after she witnesses a murder. The show enters its third season this year.
He also played politician Aaron Shore in Designated Survivor, a political drama on ABC that starred Kiefer Sutherland and Maggie Q. In 2014, Mr. Canto played the lead role of the mutant Sunspot in “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” first major film role.
Mr. Canto was born on December 5, 1981 in Ciudad Acuña, a city in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. He told Anthem Magazine in 2022 that at age seven, he was an extra in the 1992 film adaptation of “Like Water for Chocolate,” which filmed scenes in his hometown.
“I remember it vividly, just the experience of being on set and creating a world,” Mr. Canto told the magazine. “The wardrobe, the set – it was a beautiful thing. But I just never thought I would ever be part of this world.”
Mr. Canto also grew up in Del Rio, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border.
His career in entertainment officially began at the age of 16 when he decided to leave home to become a musician in Mexico City, where he sang in bars and produced songs for television.
There he also found work as an actor in commercials; After enough casting directors noticed his skills, he was cast in the Mexican television series “Estado de Gracia” in 2009.
“The music just didn’t work out in Mexico,” Mr. Canto said in an interview with Collider. “So I got interested in acting and just fell in love with it. It was wonderful! It was a great, safe place to relax.”
In 2013, he made his acting debut in the United States in “The Following,” a crime series starring Kevin Bacon. He also appeared in “Narcos,” “Mixology,” and “Blood and Oil.”
Mr. Canto also directed “The Shot,” a short film released in 2020 that won awards at the San Antonio Film Festival, the Los Angeles Movie Awards and the Iowa Independent Film Festival.
In his interview with Anthem Magazine, Mr. Canto said that he felt the need to express himself artistically through directing.
“I just imagined certain worlds and imagined them in a certain way,” he said.
He met his wife Stephanie Ann Canto in Brooklyn in 2012. In addition to Ms. Canto, Mr. Canto is survived by his two children, Roman Alder (3) and Eve Josephine (1).