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1-9 of 9
- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Rita Montaner was born on 20 August 1900 in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. She was an actress, known for Negro es mi color (1951), Victims of Sin (1951) and It Happened in Havana (1938). She was married to Javier Calderón Poveda, Ernesto Estévez Navarro, Alberto Fernández Díaz and Xavier Cugat. She died on 17 April 1958 in Havana, Cuba.- Sergio Oliva was born on 4 July 1941 in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. He was an actor, known for Los temibles (1977), O Capitão Bandeira Contra o Dr. Moura Brasil (1971) and Black Power (1975). He was married to Arleen Garrett. He died on 12 November 2012 in Evanston, Illinois, USA.
- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Probably the most important musician to be born in Cuba, Ernesto Lecuona was already playing piano at age 5. He obtained his master in piano with a gold medal at the National Conservatory when he was barely 17 years old. Among his teachers were Antonio Saavedra (a disciple of Ignacio Cervantes), Joaquin Nin and the Dutch composer Hubert de Blanck who resided in Havana. When his father died, young Lecuona was forced to work playing piano in silent-movie bistros in order to help the family finances. As he became known as a concert pianist he also started composing. In spite of being a classical pianist, early on Lecuona showed interest in popular music and composed "La Comparsita" and other dance pieces which defined Cuban music by uniting the Spanish-European musical tradition with African rhythms. In 1917 he made his first recordings in New York, where he settled for a while, but in 1918 he was back in Cuba to found the Instituto Musical de La Habana. He composed his first operetta in 1919 and became wildly successful in this genre, turning out more than 50 staged musicals. In 1927 he unveiled his "Malaguena" at the Roxy Theater in New York with enormous success (fellow composer Ravel exclaimed, "It is more beautiful and melodic than my 'Bolero!'").
The hit parade success in 1929 of "Siboney" marked another milestone in Lecuona's career and he became known as the "Cuban Gershwin." This encouraged him to form the "Orquestra Cubana", which quickly became a favorite ensemble worldwide. During a tour of Spain, the composer had to leave the orchestra for health reasons and went back to Cuba for a needed rest. The group, now under the direction of Armando Orechife, change its name to "Lecuona Cuban Boys" and continued touring the world for many years, even appearing in films.
In the late 1930s and 1940s Lecuona wrote several soundtracks for films at MGM, 20th Century-Fox and Warner Bros. The love theme for Always in My Heart (1942) became a huge hit, with more than 1,000 versions recorded by vocalists and orchestras. By the end of World War II Lecuona had built an impressive catalog of music, which included 400 songs, 176 pieces for piano, 52 operettas, zarzuelas and musical revues, 31 orchestral works, 11 soundtracks for the cinema, 5 ballets, one trio and an opera. It was obviously time to relax and enjoy the fruit of his labors, so he spaced out his musical commitments and dedicated himself to gardening and the breeding of tropical birds. Although quite wealthy, Lecuona preferred a simple lifestyle and was very proud of his roses and fruit trees. He detested politics but was notoriously generous: he financed, with his own money, various artists' associations including, with maestro Gonzalo Roig, the founding of Sociedad Nacional de Autores, devoted to protecting the copyrights of Cuban musicians.
When 'Fidel Castro (I)' (v) came to power, Lecuona, along with hundreds of thousands of Cubans, went into exile. He settled in Tampa, Florida, and it's possible that he later moved to New York, where he led a quiet life hoping for the end of the communist dictatorship on his beloved island. In 1963 he traveled to the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain to attend a tribute being held in his honor and died there on November 23rd. His body was claimed by the government of Malaga, Spain, which wanted to bury the immortal composer of "Malaguena" in their land; it was also claimed by the Cuban government, which hoped to cover up the fact that its most prestigious artist was in exile. Cuban organizations in Miami protested the move and Lecuona's body rests today at the Westchester Cemetery in New York.- Rick Sanchez was born on 3 July 1958 in Guanabacoa, Cuba. He is married to Suzanne Sanchez.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bola de Nieve was born on 11 September 1911 in Guanabacoa, Cuba. He was an actor, known for Before Night Falls (2000), The Flower of My Secret (1995) and Beyond the Road (2010). He died on 2 October 1971 in Mexico City, Mexico.- Lourdes Torres was born on 29 April 1940 in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. She died on 16 August 2017 in Havana, Cuba.
- Enrique Hernández Armenteros was born on 19 February 1918 in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. He died on 22 March 2017 in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba.
- Cinematographer
- Director
- Editor
Juan D. Vasallo was born on 3 January 1871 in Guanabacoa, Cuba. He was a cinematographer and director, known for El puño de hierro (1927), Accidente en el kilometro 253 del ferrocarril Mexico-Veracruz (1908) and Jamaica y desfile del 5 de mayo (1908). He was married to Guadalupe Comoto Márquez. He died on 28 March 1948 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.- Feliciano Arango was born on 24 January 1961 in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. He is an actor, known for Vivo En Cuba (2021) and Música cubana (2004).