José Luis Rodríguez "El Puma"
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| José Luis Rodríguez | |
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 "El Puma"
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| Born | January 14, 1943 Caracas, Venezuela |
Jose Luis Rodriguez "El Puma" (born January 14, 1943 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan singer and actor who has recorded many international super hits and participated in a handful of telenovelas. He was grew up in very modest conditions, having to shine shoes, and pack bags in a supermarket for a living since an early age. Without an academic formation, he shaped himself as a singer and actor by empirical means.
[edit] Biography
He lost his father (of Canary Islands origin) at the age of six, and was raised by his mother (an illiterate then, learned to read as an adult in order to read the bible) along with 11 brothers and sisters. As his mother participated in the revolt against Marcos Perez Jimenez (holding weapons and hiding politicians in her home), he lived in exile in Ecuador with his mother and one of his brothers for a couple of years.
Rodriguez surfaced in Venezuela in the late 1960's and early 1970's, and was able to build a fan base there. He also participated in a famous commercial, along with his family during that time. Rodriguez went to Puerto Rico, where he participated in Cristina Bazan along with Johanna Rosaly and young Adamari Lopez. While there, he got his nickname, El Puma. Later, he also made the Telenovela El ídolo, with the Cuban actress Marylin Pupo. He played a character named Omar Contreras (a.k.a. El Puma)
Rodriguez's main money revenue, however, was his singing career. His hits included Dueño De Nada, Pavo Real and Agárrense De Las Manos. With Pavo Real, he caused a controversy at the 1982 contest of Miss Universe. The contest was being held in Atlanta, a Southern American city, and Pavo Real is a song about a mixed races matrimony. This didn't sit well with the organizers of the event.
Rodriguez was married in 1980's with actress Lila Morillo, with whom procreated 2 daughters. One of them, Liliana Rodriguez Morillo, is a Venezuelan actress. Rodríguez is a born-again Christian since age 33, and he loves meeting his fans and signing autographs for them. He claims to like classical music, mainly Mozart, Beethoven, and De Lucia. He is living in Miami, since his divorce with Morillo and soon found another romantic interest, with whom he has a daughter too.
During September, 2004, Rodríguez received two personal life blows, both of them related to rape: early during that month, actor Mauricio Islas was imprisoned in Miami, for allegedly committing statutory rape with Rodriguez's youngest daughter, Genesis Rodriguez, while they both filmed a telenovela. Soon after, his former wife Lila Morillo alleged that their second daughter, Lilibeth Rodriguez, had been raped at the age of six by a house worker of the Rodriguez-Morillo mansion in Venezuela.
