Actor Francesc Garrido dies at 56 years

One of the great names in Catalan cinema and theater, 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, wild wind 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 propos of The Master and Margarita, by Bulgakov; The Video Nobody Sees, by Martin Crimp, under the direction of Carme Portaceli; The Alchemist, 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 everyone wanted 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 Navy and ended up falling in love with the city, the sea, and the woman who would be 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. I connected emotionally with him there. I went to see movies and felt he was accompanying me," he explained in late 2025 in an interview on the program Via lliure on Rac1. Cinema was his first passion, but theater captivated him when he entered the Institut del Teatre.

From the outset, he juggled theater, television, and cinema. One of his first theatrical roles was in 1996 in Amphitryon, by Molière, at the Teatre Lliure, under the direction of Calixto Bieito, where he shared the cast with Eduard Fernández, Garrido's favorite actor. He repeated with Fernández and Bieito in 1997 in The Tempest, 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 The City of Prodigies by Mario Camus.

Francesc Garrido's interpretive solvency did not go unnoticed. Under the direction of Lluís Pasqual, he performed The Cherry Orchard at Lliure in 2000 and Edipo XXI at the Grec Festival in 2002, the same year he participated in a production of Coriolanus directed by Georges Lavaudant at the Teatre Nacional. And with Bieito he worked again on King Lear, at the 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 Ferran Torrent's novel; and Smoking Room (Roger Gual and Julio D. Wallovits, 2002), where he shared the lead 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 Festival awarded him the Silver Biznaga for Best Actor.

Francesc Garrida's filmography added titles such as The Sea Inside (Alejandro Amenábar, 2004), Alatriste (Agustín Díaz Yanes, 2006), and Life Begins Today (Laura Mañá, 2010). At the same time, he acted in series such as Los hombres de Paco (2008) and Cazadores de hombres (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 role, two of his most popular performances were in Vida privada (2017), the miniseries that adapted Josep Maria de Sagarra's novel, and the Mediaset production Sé quién eres (2017), in which Garrido was the main character.

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