The great Luis Brandoni died: his best characters in film, theater and television

Beto Brandoni, as he was known in the media, was not only one of the best actors of a generation that is disappearingbut also his versatility allowed him to shine with any suit, and in both comedy and drama, in film, theater and television. Radio theater was left as a pending matteraccording to his own confession.

Hours after his death, with just turned 86 years old – on Saturday, April 18 – and a work that was on the bill until a few days ago (Who is who?) and that went down due to his health condition, It is difficult to choose his best characters, because perhaps almost all of them would fit into his more than 60 years of experience..

But let’s go with those who, for one reason or another, they become essential when drawing your gallery of unforgettable creatures.

My brother-in-law, Telefe, 1993/1996

In the remake of the success that was the 1976 comedy, Luis Brandoni had to compose the character that Osvaldo Miranda had done in the original with Ernesto Bianco. In the modern version, Cantalapiedra, a widower with a teenage daughter (Cecilia Dopazo) marries Andrea (Patricia Viggiano), but She arrives with a complete package: her brother, Federico “El Chiqui” Fornari, something like Cantalapiedra’s worst nightmare.

The focus of the comedy was on that relationship of opposite brothers-in-law, whose generational and lifestyle clashes brought out the best in Brandoni as an actorbecause his character lost patience in a few minutes and had to overcome it after his marriage. Nothing was saved, but with each Chiqui baton, Cantalapiedra went crazy and came back on track with enviable grace.. He was sober, solemn… until his brother-in-law made him lose his temper.

Cantalapiedra was one of the first to break the “fourth wall” (the one that virtually divides the actor from the spectator) to speak to the camera and seek complicity with the audience on the other side of the screen.

Was his last work for the camerasoriginally for those of the streamingbecause the series by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat was made for Star+, later becoming Disney+.

Tamayo Paz lived alone, or rather with a woman who helped him in his daily life. He was a gastronomic critic, with an exquisite palate and language, with few fleas. For being a friend of Robert De Niro managed to get the American actor to appear in the comedy that was about to start its second season..

Throughout its episodes the A sullen, intolerant and brutally honest character gained humanity in his interaction with the woman who helped him with his tasks.Antonia Nogueira (the revelation, Majo Cabrera).

Buscavidas, 1984, four seasons on Channel 13

This little TV gem of which there are no traces left marked Brandoni’s return to the small screen after his years of prohibition imposed by the military dictatorship. With address of Jorge Palaz and Diana Álvarezthe weekly unit proposed an acting counterpoint between Brandoni’s characters and that of Patricio Contreraswho played two hustlers, between dignity, illusion, utopias and frustration.

His talks were delicious. and they had a hint of hope in each closing of the chapter. Camilo was a kind of Superman who tried to solve everythinghis own and that of others, and he was “looking for lives”, while building his own as best he could.

Lezama Park, 2026, Netflix

The film directed by Juan José Campanella and co-starring Eduardo Blanco It is one of the streaming phenomena of this year. After passing through the theaters, it arrived on the platform on March 6 and showed the same characters from the play of the same name.

León and Antonio Cardozo are two strangers who meet for the first time on a bench in a square and from that place in the world they establish a relationship. who appears bellicose, but hides a deep bond of love.

León is an old communist militant who waves his flags loudly at the lukewarmness of his interlocutor.a fearful, conformist man. The ping pong of styles finds them facing old age as best they can, with memory, with fears, with principles and with a new bond that helps them cope with loneliness.

This film written and directed by Alejandro Doria had Beto sharing the poster with Norma Aleandro and Andrea del Boca. It was an agile comedy, full of gags, that showed how a traditional marriage, somewhat conservative in some ways, was trying to cope with the pregnancy of her 18-year-old daughterDel Boca’s character.

That movie remained engraved in the memory of many. the phrase turned into a meme “They filled the kitchen with smoke”with a desperate Brandoni cry.

Film directed by Juan José Jusid, based on the work Made in Lanús (1986) by Nelly Fernández Tiscornia. He was the leading role of two pairs of actors, who at the same time acted as a couple in fiction. Brandoni and Marta Bianchi on the one hand and Leonor Manso and Patricio Contreras on the other.

Osvaldo and Mabel raised their daughters in the United States, after the exile they had to do because they could not live in Argentina during the dark years.. Upon returning to visit their country, they experience nostalgia, the value of their roots, and experience a kind of reconsideration of the marriage that makes up El Negro (Contreras), Mabel’s brother, and Yoli (Manso).

The visitors’ intention is to go to New York, but the resistance of Yoli, Leonor Manso’s charming character, prevails. Osvaldo returns to Fifth Avenue, but the little streets of Buenos Aires shook his soul on his return.

Esperanzo the float, 1985

In the comedy, of grotesque genre, directed by Alejandro Doria and based on the work of the same name by the Uruguayan Jacobo LangsnerBrandoni composes one of the four children of Mama Cora, the brilliant composition by Antonio Gasalla.

Along with a big league cast, made up of China Zorrilla, Brandoni, Gasalla, Julio de Grazia, Betiana Blum and Mónica Villa among othersAntonio sought to separate himself from the profile of his brothers, in a deranged family. From that creature remained the phrase, with an author’s seal, of “three empanadas.”

In this dramatic film directed by Sergio Renán and based on the homonymous novel by the Uruguayan writer Mario BenedettiBrandoni composed the eldest of the three children of the protagonist, Martín Santomé (Héctor Alterio)a 49-year-old widower trying to rebuild his life.

Esteban is the one with whom Martín has the most conflict: a type of bad mood that clashes with half the world, with a terrible character, who over the course of life knows how to value the bond with his father.. It makes an unexpected turn, which allowed the actor, being very young, to use his talent. Her beauty and the camera got along wonderfully.