Alfredo Castro (actor)

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Castro and the second or maternal family name is Gómez.

Alfredo Castro
Castro in 2015
Born	(1955-12-19) 19 December 1955 Recoleta, Santiago, Chile
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1982–present
Political party	Democratic Revolution
Spouse	Taira Court ​ ​ (m. 1997; div. 2008)​
Children	1

Alfredo Arturo Castro Gómez (born 19 December 1955), best known as Alfredo Castro, is a Chilean actor. With a well established trajectory in theater and television, he became one of the most well-known Latin American film actors of the 2010s.

Personal and early life

Castro grew up in a family of five brothers; his mother died of cancer when he was 10. He attended elementary and middle school at Saint Gabriel de Las Condes, Kent School in Providencia and Liceo de Hombres No. 11 in Las Condes.

Castro entered the Theater Department of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Chile, where he graduated in acting in 1977. That same year he received the APES Award from the Association of Entertainment Journalists. That same year he debuted in Equus, with good reviews from the specialized press.

Acting career

Between 1978 and 1981, Castro worked in Teatro Itinerante, where he was one of the founders. In 1982, he participated in the production of De cara al mañana for Televisión Nacional de Chile, beginning his extensive career on the small screen. He traveled to London in 1983, with a scholarship from the British Council to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

In 1989, Castro received a scholarship from the Government of France to perfect himself in theater directing in Paris, Strasbourg and Lyon. He returned the same year and founded the company Teatro La Memoria. In 2013, he announced the closure, due to lack of funds, of this theater that operated in Bellavista 503. Before he had notified that he should also end his research center that gave seminars on dramaturgy, directing, acting and writing.

Castro worked as a teacher and deputy director of the Fernando González Theater Academy.

For the theater of the Catholic University, Castro staged the plays Theo and Vicente mown by the sun (adaptation of Nous, Theo et Vincent Van Gogh, by Jean Menaud; 1990) and King Lear, with a translation by Nicanor Parra; and in Chile, La Catedral de la Luz (1995), by Pablo Álvarez and Casa de Luna (1997) by Juan Claudio Burgos Droguett, a work inspired by the novel El lugar sinlimites, by José Donoso.

Castro was president of the Asociación Gremial de Directores de Chile (1997-2000) and artistic director of the Muestra de Dramaturgia organized by the General Secretariat of Government (1999-2000). During that same season, he staged Hechos consumados by Juan Radrigán and Patas de perro, based on the homonymous novel by Carlos Droguett.

Castro joined Televisión Nacional de Chile in 1998, collaborated closely with director Vicente Sabatini, with several performances in the Golden Age of TV series, achieving great popularity with his roles in La Fiera, Romané, Pampa Ilusión, El Circo de las Montini, Los Pincheira, among others.

In 2001, Castro directed Las sirvientas (also translated as Las criadas, by Jean Genet) and starred in Copi's Eva Perón, a play that marked his return to the stage as an actor.

In 2004, Castro directed Claudia Di Girolamo in Sarah Kane's play Psicosis 4:48. The following year, for the play he won an Altazor Award for Best Theater Director.

In 2006, Castro is named by Chile Elige as the third best Chilean actor of all time.

Castro made his film debut in the drama Fuga in 2006 and received critical acclaim for his performance in Tony Manero in 2008. He gained recognition for his subsequent work in roles such as Post Mortem (2010) and No (2012), as well as in leading roles in Desde allá (2015) and The Club (2016).

In 2012, Castro decided to withdraw from the telenovelas with which he became popular and to which he had dedicated a large part of his life, the last being La Doña.

In 2014, Castro directed the famous play A Streetcar Named Desire by American playwright Tennessee Williams, starring Amparo Noguera, Marcelo Alonso, Luis Gnecco and Paloma Moreno.

In 2017, Castro received the Medal of Honor from the Chamber of Deputies of Chile.

In 2019, Castro received the Starlight International Cinema Award at the 76th Venice International Film Festival for his artistic career. In March 2020, Castro was chosen as the best theater actor of the 2010s by El Mercurio.

In June 2024, Castro was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Selected filmography

Film

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	La chica del crillón	Gastón	Alberto Daiber
2006	Fuga	Claudio Leal	directed by Pablo Larraín
2007	Casa de remolienda	Renato	directed by Joaquín Eyzaguirre
2008	Secretos	Guru	directed by Valeria Sarmiento
	Tony Manero	Raúl Peralta	directed by Pablo Larraín
	The Good Life	Jorge	directed by Andrés Wood
2010	Post Mortem	Mario Cornejo	directed by Pablo Larraín
2012	It Was the Son	Busa	directed by Daniele Ciprì
2013	Il mondo fino in fondo	Lucho, el taxista	directed by Alessandro Lunardelli
	No	Luis Guzmán	directed by Pablo Larraín
	Carne de Perro	Pastor Evangélico	directed by Fernando Guzzoni
2014	The Quispe Girls	Fernando	directed by Sebastian Sepulveda
	Aurora	Santiago	directed by Rodrigo Sepulveda
	Ventana		directed by Rodrigo Susarte
2015	The Club	Padre Vidal	directed by Pablo Larraín
	From Afar	Armando	directed by Lorenzo Vigas
2016	Neruda	Gabriel González Videla, president of Chile	directed by Pablo Larraín
2017	Severina	Otón	directed by Felipe Hirsch
	The Summit	Desiderio García	directed by Santiago Mitre
	Los Perros	Juan, former colonel	directed by Marcela Said
2018	Rojo	Detective Sinclair	directed by Benjamín Naishtat
	Museum	Dr. Núñez	directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios
2019	Perro Bomba	El Jefe	Directed by Juan Cáceres
	Medea	Camionero	Directed by Alejandro Moreno
	White on White	Pedro	directed by Theo Court
	Some Beasts	Antonio	Directed by Jorge Riquelme Serrano
	The Prince	"the Stallion"	Directed by Sebastián Muñoz
2020	My Tender Matador	The Queen of the Corner	directed by Rodrigo Sepúlveda
	Perfidious	Paolo	directed by Illeane D Velasquez
	Karnawal	El Corto	directed by Juan Pablo Félix
	Verlust	Constantin	directed by Esmir Filho
2021	Immersion	Ricardo	directed by Nicolás Postiglione
	Dusk Stone	Genaro	directed by Iván Fund
2023	El Conde	Fyodor	directed by Pablo Larraín
	The Settlers	José Menéndez	directed by Felipe Gálvez Haberle
2024	City of Dreams	El Jefe	directed by Mohit Ramchandani

Television

TV

Year	Title	Role	Channel
1982	De Cara al Mañana	Claudio Castañeda	TVN
1984	La Represa	Samuel Gómez / Samuel Betancourt
	Los Títeres	Julio Barros	Canal 13
1988	Vivir Así	Ito Orsini
1990	¿Te Conté?	"Frula"
1991	Volver a Empezar	Pedro Pablo Oroz	TVN
1992	El Palo al Gato	Nando	Canal 13
1993	Jaque Mate	Jonathan Astudillo	TVN
1994	Champaña	Renán Bascur	Canal 13
1995	El Amor Está de Moda	Leonardo "León" Soto
	Amor a Domicilio	Romeo Ulloa Gatica
1996	Adrenalina	Efraín Domínguez
1997	Eclipse de Luna	Jeremías Holtz
1998	Iorana	Luciano Cox	TVN
1999	La Fiera	Ernesto Lizana
2000	Romané	Lazlo California
2001	Pampa Ilusión	Eulogio Martínez
2002	El Circo de las Montini	César Mondaca
2003	Puertas Adentro	Julio Albornoz
2004	Los Pincheira	Floridor Carmona
2005	Versus	Dr. Arístides Montenegro
2006	Floribella	Franz von Mayerlitz
2007	Corazón de María	Wladimir Tapia
2008	Viuda Alegre	José Pablo Zulueta
2009	Los Exitosos Pells	Guido Wedell
2010	Manuel Rodríguez	Francisco Casimiro Marcó del Pont	Chilevisión
2011-2012	La Doña	Pedro Lisperguer
2016	Narcos	Abel Escobar	Netflix
2017	Os Días eram Assim		Globo

External links

• Alfredo Castro at IMDb