Ricardo Alberto Darín (born 16 January 1957) is an Argentine actor, film director and film producer, considered one of the best and most prolific actors of Argentine cinema.[1]
Considered one of the greatest and most acclaimed movie stars of his country, he played several parts in TV series for several years where he became popular as a young leading actor. His most prominent roles as a film actor include Nine Queens (2000), El hijo de la novia (2001), Luna de Avellaneda (2004), The Aura (2005) and La señal (2007), which was also his directorial debut.
Darín was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 26 January 1957, to actor Ricardo Darín Sr. and actress Renée Roxana. His family is of Italian and Lebanese origin,[2][3] and has held strong ties to the Argentine showbusiness community. His parents divorced in 1969 when he was 12 years old, and his father died of cancer on 5 January 1989.[4]
Career
Early years
Darín was ten years old when he made his theater debut alongside his parents. By the age of sixteen he had achieved a stable position in television in Argentina, in TV shows such as Alta comedia and Estación Retiro, under the patronage of Alberto Migré, Argentina's major TV producer at the time.
TV success (1980s)
During the 1980s, while still collaborating with Migré, Darín was acclaimed as one of the galancitos (Spanish for "charmers"), a group of young actors that adapted popular TV programs into theater productions. The galancitos were very popular all over Argentina. In 1987, Darín starred in the television show Estrellita mía, with Andrea Del Boca, and two years later in the show Rebelde, with Grecia Colmenares.
He switched to comedy in the early 1990s, which led to his greatest television success co-starring in the remake of the 1970s TV show Mi cuñado (1993–1996), alongside Luis Brandoni.
Film success (1990s)
Despite his success on television, Darín never left theater and continued to perform in productions such as La extraña pareja (a Spanish adaptation of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple) (1984), Taxi (1985), Sugar (1986–1987), Rumores (1990), Algo en común (1995) and Art (1997–1999). He debuted as a theater director in 1990, with the production Pájaros in the nait, starring Adrián Suar, Diego Torres and Leonardo Sbaraglia.[5]
He started his film career by appearing in films mainly aimed for young audiences, such as He nacido en la ribera, Así es la vida, La rabona and Los éxitos del amor, La carpa del amor, La discoteca del amor and La canción de Buenos Aires. He then shifted to more mature roles, which permitted him to appear in films such as El desquite, Revancha de un amigo and La Rosales.
The critics first noted and praised Darín for his role in the film Perdido por perdido, directed by the newcomer Alberto Lecchi. He then appeared in Eduardo Mignogna's The Lighthouse (El faro in Spanish), and starred in Juan José Campanella's[6]Same Love, Same Rain (El mismo amor, la misma lluvia in Spanish), which brought him further critical acclaim. But his success in the film was established by his role as Marcos, a con artist amid Argentina's financial crisis, in the 2000 film Nine Queens (Nueve Reinas in Spanish), in which he starred alongside Gastón Pauls.
Darín then starred in the comedy film Samy y yo, with Angie Cepeda, in 2002. He also starred with Cecilia Roth in Kamchatka, a drama that was Argentina's official submission for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but it was not nominated by the Academy.
In 2006 he and Juan José Campanella were awarded Spanish citizenship by certificate of naturalization, a special concession given by the Kingdom of Spain to people of particular merit.[7] That same year, he starred in the Spanish film The Education of Fairies (La educación de las hadas), alongside Bebe and Irène Jacob.
In 2007 he appeared in the film XXY, where he plays the troubled father of an intersex teenage daughter. That same year, he starred and debuted as a film director in the film La señal (The Signal), a project Eduardo Magnogna left unfinished after his death.
Also in 2009 he appeared in the Spanish film El baile de la Victoria,[8] which earned him a nomination for the Goya Award, this time as Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
In 1988, Darín married fellow Argentine Florencia Bas, with whom he has two children, Chino and Clara.[18][19][20] His younger sister, Alejandra Darín [es], is an actress.[20]
Darín rejected the opportunity to play a drug trafficker in the Denzel Washington film Man on Fire, as he disapproved of Hollywood's negative stereotyping of Latin Americans.[21]
Since 2016, Ricardo Darín has been a patron of DreamAgo, an international screenwriters association.[citation needed]