Concha Velasco died this morning at the age of 84 in the Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Majadahonda (Madrid), family sources confirmed. Velasco was perhaps the last actress to exist in the collective imagination of all voting-age Spaniards. Among other things, because his professional career has been spectacular, considering that he began at the age of 15 and continued to develop it until recently. Last year, her health began to deteriorate so much that her children decided she could only be cared for in a home.
Concha Velasco, who was born in Valladolid on November 29, 1939, was not only a tireless worker. He presented a vivid portrait that showed the development of a country, a society in its own flesh. He developed at almost the same pace and in the same way as the young people of his time. She absorbed Franco’s culture (her relationship with the filmmaker José Luis Sáenz de Heredia placed her in these coordinates), although ideologically she changed until she became completely red, as she related to an environment composed mainly of anti- There were Francoists, and in particular with a very politically active Juan Diego, then a member of the Communist Party. And he stayed there until his death.
Concha Velasco, in a picture from 1972. Gianni Ferrari (Getty)
The actress in “The Art of Marriage”, by Jorge Feliu, 1966.EVA FILMS / ContactoPhoto
Manolo Escobar and Concha Velasco, in the film “Public Relations”, 1968.ContactoPhoto
Concha Velasco playing drums, 1964. Contact photo
Concha Velasco, in “Being a Hippie Once a Year Doesn’t Hurt,” from 1969. ContactoPhoto
Concha Velasco and Rocio Durcal, 1961 in Barcelona. Gianni Ferrari (Cover / Getty Images)
Concha Velasco with her husband Paco Marsó and their two sons Francisco and Manuel in a picture from 1980. Gianni Ferrari (Getty)
Concha Velasco and Adolfo Marsillach, in the performance of the play “Next time I come out, and you?”, 1982. Bernardo Pérez Tovar
Josefina Molina (right) and Concha Velasco on the filming of “Santa Teresa de Jesús”, a television series from 1984.TVE
The Cádiz poet Rafael Alberti with the actresses Esperanza Roy, Sara Montiel, Julieta Serrano and Concha Velasco at the presentation of the work “Gulf of Shadows” in 1988.María Moreno
Concha Velasco and José Sacristán in the film “La colmena” by Mario Camus, based on the novel by Camilo José Cela.
Concha Velasco, in the Tele 5 studios for an interview for EL PAÍS, 1992. Gorka Lejarcegi
From left to right: Tina Sanz, Loles León, Rosa María Sardá and Concha Velasco at a PSOE campaign event for the 1996 general elections. Ricardo Gutiérrez
Concha Velasco posed in 1999 next to some letters received from Antena 3’s “Surprise, Surprise” program.Miguel Gener
Javier Gurruchaga and the actresses Amparo Soler Leal and Concha Velasco, in a still from “Paris-Timbuktu” by Luis García Berlanga.
Concha Velasco and Giancarlo Giannini in Castilleja de Guzmán (Seville), where an adaptation of “Beyond the Garden” by Antonio Gala directed by Pedro Olea was filmed. Pablo Julia
Concha Velasco, together with the singer Raphael, spoke with the then government president José María Aznar at the reception before the concert in honor of Miguel Ángel Blanco, who was murdered by the terrorist group ETA in 1997. Ricardo Gutierrez
Concha Velasco and Antonio Gala at the performance of the play “The Friday Mornings” at the Apolo Theater in Barcelona in 1999. Silvia T. Colmenero
Concha Velasco posed for EL PAÍS in 2000. Bernardo Perez
Actress Concha Velasco with her husband Paco Marsó during her ceremony at the Las Palmas Film Festival in 2003. Martí Escuder (Cordon Press)
From left: José Luis López Vázquez, Alfredo Landa and Concha Velasco, in a scene from the film “Almost a Gentleman” by director José María Forqué. 
Concha Velasco and Fernando Guillén, in a scene from the television series “Personal Reasons”.telecinco
The then government president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, flanked by Álvaro de Luna and Concha Velasco, during an event with seniors at the Carlos III University in 2007. Manuel Stairs
Concha Velasco, photographed in February 2008. Alvaro Garcia 
Scene from the comedy “Life ahead” at the Goya Theater in Barcelona, 2009.©Massimiliano Minocri
From left: Carmen Maura, Concha Velasco, Alicia Hermida and Lola Herrera, protagonists of the TVE version of “The Golden Girls”.tve
Performance of the play “La vida por siempre” based on a text by Romain Gary, directed by Josep María Pou at the La Latina Theater in Madrid in 2010. Bernardo Pérez
Concha Velasco, in the show “Concha, what I want to dance”, 2012 in Seville. 
Concha Velasco in her dressing room at the La Latina theater in Madrid, 2012. Samuel Sánchez
The actress received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 21st edition of the Madrid Actors Union Awards in 2012.
The actress kisses her Goya of Honor at the Goya Awards Gala 2013. uly martín
Concha Velasco, in the graphic demonstration of the work “Hécuba”, 2014. Kiko Huesca (EFE)
Concha Velasco, in a picture from 2016. Samuel Sánchez
From left to right: Kiti Mánver, Concha Velasco, Lluís Homar and Magüi Mira, the four winners of the Ceres Awards 2014. Jero Morales
Concha Velasco, at the Palace Hotel, in 2017. Carlos Rosillo
The actress Concha Velasco with her son, the writer and director Manuel M. Velasco, and the actor Antonio Resines at the premiere of “El Funeral” in 2018. Nacho Gallego (EFE)
Concha Velasco, accompanied by her son Manuel (back), waved after her last appearance, where she received a plaque from Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza, mayor of Logroño, on September 21, 2021.Europa Press
He also experienced a distancing from the Catholic Church, although not from the Christian religion, which he practiced throughout his life. “Sometimes they say to me, ‘How do you eat that?’ Well, divine. I reached 80 with very clear convictions. Additionally, I was fortunate enough to apologize to three very important men in my life that I willingly hurt. All three are alive, but don’t even dream of me telling you who they are; even my husband Paco Marsó, because maybe his life was wrong because I forced him to be wrong,” she said two years ago about her only husband, with whom she had a son, although she also raised the eldest and gave him hers Surnames were given by them. Brothers, Manuel, with whom Concha became pregnant in a relationship with cinematographer Fernando Arribas.
Between the ages of 10 and 20, she studied classical ballet, Spanish dance and music theory at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Madrid, as well as acting. At the age of 15 he began appearing in films as an extra. The world of cinema claimed it from the beginning and it passed through the hands of the most renowned directors of the time and took part in projects that brought in a breath of fresh air that moved away from Franco’s morals. Of course, this was a decades-long process that began with Javier Elorrieta, Antonio Román, Jerónimo Mihura, Rafael J. Salvia, Pedro Lazaga, Fernando Palacio and José Luis Sáez de Heredia and opened up to filmmakers such as Mariano Ozores, José María Forqué, Javier Aguirre, Francisco Rovira Beleta, José A. Nieves, José Luis García Sánchez, Antonio Drove, Francisco Regueiro…
At the age of 15 he appeared in The Moorish Queen and four years later he had the success of The Girls of the Red Cross, the first of his six films with Tony Leblanc. In 1965, she sang La chica ye-yé in Histories of Television, which, to her surprise, launched a musical career.
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At the end of the dictatorship, Concha Velasco became an important part of a new cinema that emerged strongly from the hands of directors who constantly claimed her, such as her great friend Pedro Olea, Antonio Artero, Jaime Camino, Roberto Bodegas, Angelino Fons, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Mario Camus, Jaime de Armiñán, Josefina Molina, Luis García Berlanga, Yolanda García Serrano and Juan Luis Iborra, Jesús Bonilla, David Trueba and a list of new directors. In fact, she confessed that she pursued the directors she was interested in in order to get out of a typecast cinema, to stop being the ye-yé girl and not to take part in shitty comedies. These are the years of “Pim, pam, pum… fire!”, “The long vacation of 1936”, “La colmena”, “Esquilache” (his first nomination for the Goya) and “Beyond the Garden” (second candidacy for the Goya). “My career ended with Paris-Timbuktu because I have no one left to pursue,” he remarked a few years ago, explaining how he pursued Berlanga until he worked on his film testament under his command. “I used to reach out to the directors I was interested in, that’s what I always did and if necessary I’ll get on my knees, whatever… The truth is that a woman isn’t allowed to age gracefully, a man is.” , she concluded, making it clear that even though she was already in her eighties, she always had a full theater. “Look where you are now, you’ve wanted to live to be eighty your whole life and when you get there it’s no fun at all,” he said with his infectious laugh. In 2013 he received the Goya Honorary Prize and in 2020 he appeared in his latest film Malasaña 32.
Concha Velasco, with her Goya of Honor in 2013. Uly Martin
He had the stages in his DNA. Since the 1950s he has been under the spell of magazines (he worked with the legendary Celia Gámez) as well as great texts, musicals or classical and contemporary authors, not only Spanish.
It was a time when popular actresses like her did theater, a lot of theater, but not to gain respect in the Anglo-Saxon style. They did it the Spanish way, for food and because the ghost of the telephone was always silent. They took whatever jobs came their way, and if they had to sleep for hours in the morning to shoot or record, rehearse in the afternoon, and do one or two shows a day without taking a day off a week, then that was it that the case is closed. And once they were done, it was clear whether they were food jobs or whether they were used to gain prestige and be better valued in the profession.
Velasco never ignored that theater was addictive, and every time a project came his way, he was deeply involved, emptying his pockets when necessary. He devoted himself body, soul and money to the theater and his works were very numerous. She liked everyone and gave a lot of herself to everyone. Only Hecuba, a Greek-Latin character she played between 2013 and 2014, took a liking to her: “She was evil and did something to me because that was when the cancer appeared and Hecuba was certainly behind it.”
The actress had fetish authors such as Antonio Gala who wrote works specifically for her, such as Carmen Carmen. Or Adolfo Marsillach (who also directed), whose success I will count on next time, and you? brought his great companion and friend José Sacristán to the cinema. And no one has mastered it as a director as well as José Carlos Plaza.
His first authors remained, including Alfonso Paso, Alonso Millán, Buero Vallejo, José Martín. Memories and sound successes such as his interpretation of Filomena Marturano by Eduardo di Filippo from 1979 and 2006 or the musicals Arrevistas such as Mama I Want to Become an Artist or Hello, Dolly!. His end on stage came after he appeared in a play by Ernesto Caballero and two by his son Manuel M. Velasco.
Television has also recorded it several times and for very different interventions. Not only outstanding series such as Teresa de Jesús, which she always claimed to have influenced her greatly, but also the most recent and successful Herederos, The Golden Girls, Gran Hotel and The Cable Girls and many others. As far as small-screen programs go, his participation in Cine de barrio increased his popularity even further.
Concha Velasco and Adolfo Marsillach, in January 1982 during the performance of the play “Next time I’ll get out, what about you?” by Marsillach himself. Bernardo Pérez
Concha Velasco has received so many important awards that it is difficult to know if there is one in her category that she has not received. Few people have been loved more than this woman and even fewer, perhaps none, leaves behind 140 awards, 16 albums, 83 films, two short films, 36 plays, 18 television series, 26 great events for the small screen, 11 studies 1, and all in Would age: “Since I have not had surgery, I can show the varicose veins, the arthrosis of a hand or neck…” he told EL PAÍS on the day he turned 80.
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