| Roberto Gómez Bolaños | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 21, 1929 Mexico City, Mexico |
| Other names | Chespirito |
| Occupation | Film director, actor, screenwriter, comedian, songwriter |
| Years active | 1950–present |
| Spouse | Florinda Meza (November 19, 2004 - present) |
| Partner | Florinda Meza (1977-2004) |
| Website | |
| http://www.chespirito.com | |
Roberto Gómez Bolaños (born February 21, 1929 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican writer, actor, director, comedian, humorist, songwriter, poet and philosopher. He is best known by his stage name Chespirito[1] (lit. Little Shakespare).
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Before becoming an actor, Bolaños was an amateur boxer. He studied Engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico). He wrote a number of plays, and contributed dialogue for scripts of films and television shows in Mexico, as well as some character acting work before he became famous. His stage name of Chespirito was given by a producer during Gómez Bolaños' first years as a writer and was concocted from the diminutive form of the Spanish pronunciation of the name of William Shakespeare or Shakespierito, meaning "Little Shakespeare" or "Little Shakespeare Boy".
Chespirito was discovered as an actor while he was waiting in line to apply for a job as a writer and soon he began writing and starring in his children comedy shows. He continuously starred in shows on Mexican television from 1970 to 1995 and became well known throughout the entire world, mainly in Latin America.
His best known roles were in the shows El Chavo del Ocho and El Chapulín Colorado, produced by Mexican TV Network Televisa and being aired all over the world in 124 countries. Other shows produced by and starring him were the short-lived La Chicharra and, during his last years on air, Chespirito.
In El Chavo del Ocho, Chespirito played an 8 year old boy who often took refuge inside a wooden rain barrel in a Mexican neighborhood, and in El Chapulín Colorado he played a good-hearted superhero who always got involved in funny situations. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has declared that he created the Bumblebee Man character after watching El Chapulín Colorado in a motel on the U.S.-Mexico border.
These two shows have turned in a cultural icon all over Latin America and United States and also having being aired in more than one hundred countries. He also starred in such Mexican movies as El Chanfle and El Chanfle 2.
Bolaños is also noted as a musical composer. He started writing music as a hobby, and most of his early musical work was related to his comedy work, particularly featured in occasional Chapulín Colorado or Chavo del Ocho special episodes. Later work includes the theme songs for various Mexican movies and telenovelas such as "Alguna Vez Tendremos Alas" and "La Dueña". A comedy song of Gómez, "Churi Churi Fun Flais", was slightly referenced by Puerto Rican rap duo Calle 13 in a pairing with fellow rapper Voltio, on their song "Chulin Culin Chunfly" (which used the made-up word "Culin", a reference to the female derriere, in substitution of the second "Churi").
He is also the creator of the theater comedy "Once y Doce" ("Eleven and Twelve"), which is still played occasionally and it came to be the most successful theater comedy in Mexican history.
He is also a big supporter and attendee of Mexican Club and Club America.
On November 19, 2004, he married actress Florinda Meza, who starred as Doña Florinda in El Chavo. After show production was stopped both for El Chavo and El Chapulín, both toured Mexico and the rest of Latin America and the United States with different plays, sometimes playing the characters that made them famous.
On November 26, 2003, Chespirito and Florinda Meza received the keys to the city of Cicero, Illinois.
Roberto Gómez Bolaños and Edgar Vivar once received an award from a Laurel and Hardy fan club for performing the funniest impersonation of Laurel and Hardy in Latin America. This impersonation was made during an episode of El Chapulín Colorado.
While some South American presidents gave him honors, the PRI-ruled Mexican government (1929–2000) ignored him completely.
During the 2000 and the 2006 Presidential electoral campaigns in Mexico he openly supported the PAN (Partido Acción Nacional, National Action Party) in a TV commercial urging people to vote for this party just like him.
In 2006, he started a campaign against the legalization of abortion in Mexico City. He also wrote the books El Diario de El Chavo del Ocho ("Diary From the Kid from Number 8"), ...Y También Poemas ("...And Poems Too") and Sin Querer Queriendo: Memorias ("Accidentally on purpose: memoirs").
In 2008, he went to Peru to present him as Chespirito in the auditorium of the Colegio San Agustín of Lima.
In 2009 he was also honaged by the Colombian TV channel RCN in which he received the keys of the municipality of Soacha, more than 20.000 people attended the homage.
On November 12, 2009, he was admitted to a Mexico City hospital. According to his son, Roberto Gómez Fernandez, Gómez Bolaños had prostate complications, which required a simple surgery to treat.
Two themes from Jean-Jacques Perrey, "The Elephant Never Forgets" and "Baroque Hoedown" were used as the main themes for El Chavo Del Ocho and El Chapulin Colorado. A 2009 lawsuit by the composers against him and Mexican multimedia conglomerate Televisa was settled in 2010, as a compensation for the network's non-payment of the use of these melodies.