During the 1990s and early 2000s, Mexican actor José Ángel Llamas was one of the most in-demand leading actors on television in Latin America. He starred in some of the most watched soap operas and alongside the most beautiful actresses of the time.
He was famous in Colombia for coming to the country in 2002 to star in the novel La venganza alongside the equally famous Gabriela Spanic. The Venezuelan conquered audiences with her starring role in the soap opera La Usurpadora and her beauty.
Audiences loved the roles of the two actors, but soon began talking about them, not only as the protagonists of the hit soap opera, but also because of their much-discussed romance in real life. Llamas and Spanic transitioned from screenplays to a sentimental relationship far from fiction.
#JoseAngelLamas After giving up acting, he is now a pastor. 😮
His renewed faith led him to take his family to Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, a Hispanic church in South Florida, where he eventually felt identified. pic.twitter.com/o8uHgNmnNV
– Romega TV (@Romegadigitaltv) January 25, 2023
In addition, the romance of the two young actors for show business was a constant source of news. In fact, “Gaby,” as the Venezuelan actress is known, divorced her husband, Miguel de León, and that sparked a lot of conversation.
However, the famous couple broke up some time later for unknown reasons and each went their separate ways.
‘Gaby’ continued to act in telenovelas and is still valid.
For his part, Llamas gradually moved away from television, although he married actress María Croatto in 2004.
In 2010 he volunteered at a Protestant church and is now a pastor at the age of 56.
In interviews given to some media outlets, Llamas said he decided to dedicate his life entirely to television for an episode he claimed was live on a recording set of Mexican soap opera Profugas del destino. He said he saw a message that spoke of Jesus as Savior on a T-shirt belonging to one of the novel’s technicians. He approached the technician and asked him what the text on the shirt meant. The next day he brought him a Bible and told him about his spirituality.
“Fame began to change my humility, my simplicity and my glory began to give me a certain power and control that I believed I had all here (in the palm of my hand) and could achieve if I said ‘ I want it. That was the dream, to have a wife, a family, a big house, a nice car, and when I had all that, I realized I wasn’t happy. I hated what I had to love and I loved what I had to hate,” he told People en Español.
Llamas is currently the Superior of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale Church in South Florida, where he leads worship every Sunday.