The actor Hector Alterioan icon of Argentine cinema who died this Saturday at the age of 96 in Spain, where he lived since 1975, was the protagonist of five films that competed for the Oscar.
On March 24, 1986 “The official story”a film by Luis Puenzo, became the first Argentine to win an Oscar for best foreigner. This very day marked the tenth anniversary of the military coup that established the bloodiest dictatorship in our history.
In the film, Norma Aleandro takes on the role of a high school teacher who suspects that her adopted daughter could be one of the dictatorship’s “appropriated ones,” and Héctor Alterio plays the role of her husband.
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Héctor Alterio in “The Official History”
“I had a very important feeling about The Official Story…I felt to a certain extent that it was beyond my capabilities as an actor because, in addition to the Oscar and the great work of Norma Aleandro, it was also about the world,” recalls Alterio.
As the actor had put it: “I felt like I was telling people what had happened to us and that we didn’t want it to happen to us again. We made the film with complete freedom, but it gave me the responsibility, as a sort of spokesperson, to tell the public what had happened to us.”
Alterio was also the protagonist of the two Argentine films that competed for the Oscar in previous editions: “The Truce”by Sergio Renán, 1975 and “Camila” by María Luisa Bemberg in 1985. She was also the fourth Argentine to achieve the nomination in 2001. “The bride’s son“, by Juan José Campanella.
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Héctor Alterio in “The Armistice”
If we also remember his extensive filmography in Spain, another Oscar-nominated film was added: he was the protagonist of “The nest“, by Jaime de Armiñán, together with Ana Torrent and another great Argentine actor with whom Alterio spent the first periods of exile: Luis Politti.
Another curiosity: the winner of the Oscar for Best Foreigner in 1983 was “Start over”also Spanish, directed by José Luis Garci. He wanted to have Alterio, but that wasn’t possible: the actor already had a contract to shoot another film. “There was no way I could say yes, but Garcí told me to convince me: “Look, Héctor, that’s how we won the Oscar.”I laughed, of course, and apologized for refusing. Anyway, Garci tiredly called Antonio Ferrandis, who was wonderful.
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