The Academy recognizes Concha Velasco for a lifetime dedicated to cinema

The Valladolid artist starred in one of the most emotional moments of the night when she received the award from her niece, also an actress, Manuela Velasco.

The actress Concha Velasco collected the Goya Honor Award tonight at the Gala of the 27th edition of these awards, which took place at the Príncipe Felipe auditorium in Madrid. The Valladolid artist starred in one of the most emotional moments of the night when she received the award from her niece, also an actress, Manuela Velasco.

Concha Velasco, an unmistakable artist and necessary to understand the cinematographic production of the last fifty years, thanked the award in a humorous way, recalling a personal anecdote at another Goya gala in which she was nominated for her performance in Beyond the garden, and in which she was convinced that she would win it even though her friend and author of the work on which the film was inspired, Antonio Gala, warned her that it would not be for her. That year the big winner of the gala was The Manger Dog.

Concha Velasco joined the Academy on May 29, 1986 and has been, for several decades, one of the most popular and beloved faces in the world of entertainment in our country. With more than eighty films, numerous plays and musicals, albums, and great successes on the small screen, 'la Velasco' has one of the most extensive resumes in the profession.

Velasco, upon learning of the granting of recognition unanimously by the Board of Directors of the Academy, did not forget his colleagues - "Spanish actors, in all eras, have had immense quality, and not always recognized. I speak both about the supporting actors, who have sustained and sustain our cinema, and about the protagonists, because the factory of dreams needs them" -. After these words he remembered Tony Leblanc – “a friend to whom I owe everything” –; Manolo Escobar –“the five films we made together are on par with those Katherine Hepburn made with Spencer Tracy”–; Lopez Vazquez Alfredo Landa; Manolo Gómez Bur; and Fernando Fernán Gómez.

Pim, pam, pum…, ¡fuego!, by Pedro Olea, and Teresa de Jesús, directed by Josefina Molina, are the works with which Concha Velasco feels most satisfied, who got rid of the thorn of working with Berlanga in the last film directed by the Valencian master. “I'm not one of those who wait at home for the phone to ring, I have pursued directors and producers when I found out that there was a role I would like to do”

She had words for those who have been her predecessors in the award: Rafaela Aparicio – “I have worked with her all my life, she was my friend and I have seen her act sick”; Imperio Argentina – “she was my mother's favorite actress, I wanted to be her when I watched movies, and from her I learned to laugh even when I'm doing drama”–; and Josefina Molina –“she is wonderful, thanks to her I made Teresa of Jesús”–.

A life dedicated to acting

Concepción Velasco Varona (Valladolid, 1939) made her film debut with The Moorish Queen (1954), by Raúl Alfonso; but it will be in 1958 with The girls of the Red Cross, by Rafael J. Salvia, when the pucelana becomes a representative of the new Spanish comedy, which broke the mold with post-war cinema. According to the Dictionary of Spanish Cinema, directed by José Luis Borau, “then Conchita Velasco embodied the image of a modern but honest girl, friendly and not clumsy, naughty, mischievous, with common sense and respectful of order, that is, a perfect girlfriend.”

After this would come an endless number of titles: Valentine's Day, by Fernando Palacios; The cheaters, by Pedro Lazaga; The Paloma festival, by José Luis Sáenz de Heredia; Those that have to serve, by José María Forqué; In a place on the sleeve, by Mariano Ozores; Torment, by Pedro Olea; and The hive, by Mario Camus, among many others. Alfredo Landa, José Luis López Vázquez and, above all, Tony Leblanc and Manolo Escobar, were some of the professional partners of this performer, whose last appearances on celluloid have been Rabia, by Sebastián Cordero; Crazed, by Juan Luis Iborra;Chuecatown, by Juan Flahn; Welcome home, by David Trueba; and Moscow gold, by Jesús Bonilla. He also co-starred with Michel Piccoli Paris Tombuctú, Luis García Berlanga's last film.

The actress, who in 1987 received the Gold Medal of Fine Arts and in 2003 the Gold Medal of the Academy, has been a candidate for the Goya Award twice: in 1989 as Best Supporting Actress, for Esquilache; and in 1996 as Best Leading Actress, for Beyond the Garden. He has also presented the gala of these awards on two occasions: in 2006, together with Antonio Resines, and in 2001, together with Loles León and María Barranco, among others.

Many of his successes came in the theater where he has worked in more than thirty plays, among which Filomena Marturano, I'll get off next time, what about you?, La truhana, Don Juan Tenorio, Inés unbuttoned, Life ahead, y Concha, what I want is to dance, a work that recounts his 50-year career and is currently being performed at the Teatro La Latina in Madrid, under the direction of José María Pou. He has also developed a parallel career in television, where he worked alongside Josefina Molina in Teresa de Jesús. He has also participated in Mom, I want to be an artist!; Me, a woman; Companions; Personal reasons; Heirs; The golden girls, and currently Great Hotel. Since January 2011, he has presented the program 'Neighborhood Cinema'.