At the age of 96, the renowned Argentine actor Héctor Alterio died and with him disappears one of the most ethical, powerful and moving personalities in acting. His family shared this, thereby closing the curtain on a life dedicated to art that went beyond the canvas: Alterio was, to the end, an artist whose work was a form of acknowledgment of his time.
His career with more than 150 films left not only masterful performances, but also inescapable political and cultural traces, marked by dictatorships, exile and return. According to his relatives, he died “after a long and fulfilling life,” in which he was professionally active until his last day.
Alterio was born in Buenos Aires and built his myth from the outside. After the collapse of 1974, he lived in Spain for more than half a century. As the protagonist of the riotous series La Patagonia Rebellion and La Tregua, he became a target of Triple A. A trip to San Sebastián turned into a forced exile. The return plane never arrived.
But this distance did not break the connection; on the contrary, it reinforced it. Her distinctive voice and diction became associated with the backbone of national cinema: La historia oficial (where she embodied the uncomfortable complicity of the dictatorship), Camila, Plata quemada and of course that vital outburst in Wild Horses with the immortal: “The whore worth being alive!”
The final stage comeback
The pain of exile became an intimate art. In his final years, Alterio returned to the Buenos Aires stage with Mi Buenos Aires, a show of recitation, poetry and tango. Accompanied on the piano by Juan Esteban Cuacci, he conjured up the Buenos Aires of his childhood as a “lost paradise,” showing that time had not undermined his talent. There was no ceremony; It was an honest and lively farewell.
His last visit to Buenos Aires in 2023, where he was honored as Personality of Culture Emeritus, brought together Argentine acting royalty (Darín, Soriano, Sbaraglia). These pictures are our farewell today.
With the departure of Héctor Alterio, much more than just an actor leaves, but a voice that told the pain and hope of a country and an interpreter that never stopped returning even in exile. His legacy is proof that art can and should be an act of engagement.
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