Fernando Rey
Actor

Fernando Rey Net Worth

Fernando Rey was born in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain in 1917 and originally intended to become an architect. However, the Spanish Civil War interrupted his studies and he began working as a movie extra, taking the stage name "Fernando Rey". He went on to have a long and prosperous career in movies, theater, radio, and television, and was a major voice-over artist in Spain. His most fruitful collaboration was with director Luis Buñuel, which began in the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. Rey's most notable roles were in The French Connection (1971) and its sequel, Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972), and Cet obscur objet du désir (1977). He won the Best Actor prize at Cannes for Carlos Saura' Elisa, vida mía (1977). In the 1980s and 1990s, Rey was honored with awards at San Sebastián and Cannes, and was presented with the gold medal of the Spanish Art and Movie Sciences Academy. He became the president of that Academy from 1992 until his death from cancer two years later.
Fernando Rey is a member of Actor

Age, Biography and Wiki

Who is it? Actor
Birth Day September 20, 1917
Birth Place  A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, Spain
Age 103 YEARS OLD
Died On 9 March 1994(1994-03-09) (aged 76)\nMadrid, Spain
Birth Sign Libra
Occupation Actor
Years active 1935–1994
Spouse(s) Mabel Karr (1960–1994)
Awards Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor 1977 Elisa, vida mía

💰 Net worth

Fernando Rey, renowned for his remarkable acting skills, is projected to have a net worth ranging from $100,000 to $1 million by 2024. Hailing from Spain, Rey has carved his name in the acting industry through impeccable performances. Throughout his career, he has captivated audiences with his versatility, portraying a wide range of characters on both the big screen and television. With a significant body of work and international recognition, Fernando Rey's net worth is expected to climb further, solidifying his status as one of Spain's most talented and successful actors.

Biography/Timeline

1936

In 1936, Rey began his career in movies as an extra, sometimes even getting credited. It was then that he chose his stage name, Fernando Rey. He kept his first name, but took his mother's second surname, Rey, a short surname with a clear meaning ("Rey" is Spanish for "King").

1944

In 1944, his first speaking role was the Duke of Alba in José López Rubio's Eugenia de Montijo. Four years later, he acted the part of Felipe I el Hermoso, King of Spain, in the Spanish cinema blockbuster Locura de amor.

1953

This was the start of a prolific career in film (he played in around two hundred films), radio, theatre, and television. Rey was also a great dubbing actor in Spanish television. His voice was considered intense and personal, and he became the narrator of important Spanish movies including Luis García Berlanga's Bienvenido Mr. Marshall (1953), Ladislao Vajda's Marcelino Pan y Vino (1955), and even the 1992 re-dubbed version of Orson Welles' Don Quixote. In fact, Rey acted in four different film versions of Don Quixote in different roles, if one counts the Welles version (for which Rey supplied offscreen narration in the final scene).

1954

His brilliant performance in the role of a demotivated and doubtful actor in Juan Antonio Bardem's Cómicos (1954), while showing him for the first time in a successful lead part, paradoxically, as he saw himself as the real incarnation of the role, plunged him in a professional depression, of which he did not emerge until his collaboration with Luis Buñuel several years later. However, in the short term, Buñuel's disconcerting public remark on Rey's performance in another of Bardem's film, Sonatas (1959), "I love how this actor plays a corpse", could only increase Rey's apprehensions. Nevertheless, eventually Rey became Buñuel's preferred actor and closest friend.

1958

Rey's first international performance was in The Night Heaven Fell (Les bijoutiers du clair de lune) a 1958 French-Italian film directed by Roger Vadim, where he acted alongside Stephen Boyd, Marina Vlady and Brigitte Bardot. Previously he had played in an American TV series, It happens in Spain, the story of the exploits of a private detective, operating out in Spain, who helps distressed American tourists.

1959

In 1959, Rey co-starred with Steve Reeves and Christine Kaufmann in the Italian sword and sandal film The Last Days of Pompeii.

1960

In 1960, Rey married the Argentine Actress Mabel Karr. In 1992 he became chairman of the Spanish Movie Arts and Sciences Academy. He died of bladder cancer in Madrid in 1994.

1961

In 1961 Rey played in a European Western, The Savage Guns, and as the popularity of that genre increased during that decade appeared in some other movies, including the political The Price of Power (1969), the bizarre cult classic Compañeros, and two sequels of The Magnificent Seven, namely Return of the Seven (1966) and Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969).

1970

Along 1970s and 1980s Rey played in many international co-productions, some of his appearances being cameos. These films include Lewis Gilbert's The Adventurers (1970), Mauro Bolognini's Drama of the Rich (1974), Vincente Minnelli's A Matter of Time (1976), Valerio Zurlini's The Desert of the Tartars (1976), Robert Altman's Quintet (1979), J. Lee Thompson's Caboblanco (1980) and Frank Perry's Monsignor (1982). One of Rey's greater successes in these years was Elisa, vida mía, a 1977 Spanish drama film written and directed by Carlos Saura.

1971

In 1971 Fernando Rey won the best actor award in the San Sebastián International Film Festival, for his performance in Rafael Gil's La duda, based, like Viridiana and Tristana, on a novel by Benito Pérez Galdós.

1975

In Lina Wertmüller's Academy Award-nominated film, Seven Beauties (1975), Rey played the role of Pedro the anarchist who, as a friend of the protagonist and fellow prisoner Pasqualino Settebellezze, chooses a gruesome suicide, rather than spend another day in a Nazi concentration camp.

1976

On his work in Stuart Rosenberg's Voyage of the Damned (1976), Rey once said: "I played [Cuban] President Brú; a cameo. They paid me a lot of money for less than six hours of shooting, in the Barcelona Stock Exchange building, with James Mason. I got more money than Orson Welles, who played a great role ...".

1977

Rey won Best Actor award at 1977 Cannes Film Festival for his performance in Elisa, vida mía.

1985

In later years, Rey preferred to work in Spain, with successes as Francisco Regueiro's Padre Nuestro (1985), José Luis Cuerda's El bosque animado (1987) and Jaime de Armiñán's Al otro lado del túnel (1992) as well as his portrayal of Don Quixote, alongside Alfredo Landa as Sancho Panza, in the memorable Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón's El Quijote de Miguel de Cervantes (1991) for the Spanish National TV.

1988

In 1988 he again won the best actor award in the San Sebastián International Film Festival, this time for his performance in two films: Francisco Regueiro's Diario de invierno and Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi's El Aire de un Crimen (The Hint of a Crime).

1994

His last appearance on the screen was in a supporting role in the Spanish black comedy El cianuro ... ¿sólo o con leche? (Cyanide ... pure or with milk?) (1994).

Some Fernando Rey images

About the author

Lisa Scholfield

As a Senior Writer at Famous Net Worth, I spearhead an exceptional team dedicated to uncovering and sharing the stories of pioneering individuals. My passion for unearthing untold narratives drives me to delve deep into the essence of each subject, bringing forth a unique blend of factual accuracy and narrative allure. In orchestrating the editorial workflow, I am deeply involved in every step—from initial research to the final touches of publishing, ensuring each biography not only informs but also engages and inspires our readership.