Jorge Porcel

Infobox actor
name = Jorge Porcel


caption =
birthdate = September 17 1936
location = Buenos Aires, Argentina
deathdate = death date and age|2006|05|16|1936|09|17
deathplace = Miami, United States
yearsactive =
birthname = Jorge Raúl Porcel de Peralta
othername =
homepage =

Jorge Raúl Porcel de Peralta (September 7, 1936, Buenos Aires - May 16, 2006, Miami) was a comedy actor and television host from Argentina. He was nicknamed "El Gordo de América" ("America's Fat Guy"). Porcel was often considered, along with Alberto Olmedo, one of Argentina's greatest comic actors of the twentieth century.

Movie career

Porcel made a total of 49 movies, starting with 1962's "Disloque en Mar del Plata", and ending with Carlito's Way (1993). Many of these 49 movies were collaborations with Olmedo. Among the movies they did together was 1986's "Rambito y Rambón: Primera Misión". ("Little Rambo and Big Rambo: First Mission")

Many of Porcel and Olmedo's movies in the 1970s and 1980s were adult-oriented comedies. Conservative Argentine authorities rated these movies as PM-18 (age 18 and above), except for some movies planned for family audiences, which had "tamer" content. These movies are considered to be the pinnacle of Argentina's sexploitation movie genre. Most of these movies were directed by Gerardo Sofovich or his brother Hugo. Porcel virtually stopped appearing in these movies after the accidental death of Olmedo, which left him clinically depressed.

Films

Television career

Porcel had many TV hit shows as well, including "Operación Ja Ja" (both the 1960s original and the 1980s remake) and "Polémica en el Bar" (Debate at the Café), where he had celebrated moments of comedy with fellow comedian Juan Carlos Altavista. Most of these TV efforts were linked to the Sofovich brothers.

After he retired from filming movies in Argentina, he moved to Miami, where he starred in a risqué late-night variety show named "A la cama con Porcel" ("To Bed with Porcel") on the Telemundo network, and was given a cameo in Hollywood production Carlito's Way. "A La Pasta con Porcel" is a restaurant in Miami Beach opened by Porcel and named after his popular television show.

Porcel's health deteriorated with time, due to his struggles with obesity and diabetes, to the point of ending up using a wheelchair in his later years. He toured during 1999 through Latin America to promote his autobiography "Laughs, Applause and Tears", visiting such places as Puerto Rico and some other countries in that endeavor. By this time, he had also become a born again Christian.

Porcel died in a hospital in Miami after a gallbladder surgery at the age of 69. His body was flown to Buenos Aires and buried at the La Chacarita Cemetery.

ee also

*Argentine humour
*List of television presenters/Argentina

External links

*
*
* [http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=15dd2071-9fe2-4ef3-a0de-d89823eda8b2&k=67080 Obituary] at Canada.com