Actor Francesc Garrido dies at 56

One of the great names in Catalan cinema and theatre, Francesc Garrido, died this Sunday night at the age of 56, as confirmed by the actor's circle to ARA. Garrido was known for his roles in films such as Smoking room, Mar adentro and Balandrau, vent salvatge and series such as La sala, Vida privada and Jaguar. He also had a solid theatrical career, with notable performances in productions such as Àlex Rigola's a propòsit d'El mestre i Margarita, by Bulgakov; El vídeo no el veu ningú, by Martin Crimp, under the direction of Carme Portaceli; L’alquimista, the adaptation that Michael De Cock made of Opus nigrum by Marguerite Yourcenar, as well as participating in different works by Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Ibsen.

Francesc Garrido was one of those actors that everyone wanted to have by their side. He lent prestige to casts and guaranteed meticulous work. He was born in Barcelona, the son of a Madrilenian who had come to the Catalan capital to study merchant marine and who ended up falling in love with the city, the sea, and the actor's mother, a nurse. His father died in a traffic accident when Francesc Garrido was 12 years old. "When he died, cinema became my church. There I connected emotionally with him. I went to see films and felt he was with me," he explained in late 2025 in an interview on the program Via lliure on RAC1. Cinema was his first passion, but theatre captivated him when he entered the Institut del Teatre.

From the beginning, he combined theatre, television, and cinema. One of his first theatre roles was in 1996 in Amfitrió, by Molière, at the Teatre Lliure, under the direction of Calixto Bieito, where he shared the cast with Eduard Fernández, Garrido's favorite actor. With Fernández and Bieito, he repeated in 1997 in La tempesta, by Shakespeare, also at the Lliure. One of his first television appearances was in the series Estació d'enllaç (1996-1999), where he played the role of Estradé in about fifteen episodes. His film debut came in 1997 in La ciutat dels prodigis by Mario Camus.

Francesc Garrido's interpretive solvency did not go unnoticed. Under the direction of Lluís Pasqual, he made The Cherry Orchard to Libre in 2000 and Oedipus XXI to the Grec Festival in 2002, the same year he participated in a production of Coriolanus directed by Georges Lavaudant at the National Theatre. And with Bieito he worked again on King Lear, at Romea in 2004. In parallel, he began a film career, with roles in films such as The Dutchman's island (Sigfrid Monleón, 2001), which adapted the novel by Ferran Torrent, and Smoking room (Roger Gual and Julio D. Wallovits, 2002), he shared the spotlight with Francesc Orella and Eduard Fernández, among others, and where Garrido's theatrical experience gave more depth to the character: in fact, the jury of the Malaga Film Festival awarded him the Silver Biznaga for best actor.

Francesc Garrido's filmography includes titles such as Out to sea (Alejandro Amenábar, 2004), Alatriste (Agustín Díaz Yanes, 2006) and Life begins today (Laura Mañá, 2010). At the same time, she acted in series such as Paco's Men (2008) and Man hunters (2008) and in the miniseries Ermessenda (2011). Year after year, he was a regular presence on television, both in Catalonia and Spain, in series such as Cites (2015) and Isabel (2014). In this television facet, two of his most popular roles were in Private life (2017), the miniseries that adapted the novel by Josep Maria de Sagarra, and the Mediaset production Know who you are (2017), in which Garrido was the main character.

Despite his work in film and television, he did not leave the theater. On stage, he did impressive work in Àlex Rigola's Heartbreak Hotel, a theater that allows for a very special closeness. Garrido exhibited his acting talent there a Glengarry Glen Ross, by David Mamet, in 2024. And with Rigola, but at Lliure, in 2025 played Satan in the adaptation of The Master and Margarita.