14ymedio, Havana, June 2, 2019 — Radio, television, theater and movie actor Salvador Wood died in Havana on Saturday afternoon at the age of 90 according to the Cuban television website. At the time of his death he was living in Cojímar, a town east of Havana.
Wood was a recipient of the National Television Award for Lifetime Achievement and achieved recognition for roles in films such as The Death of a Bureaucrat by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and El Brigadista by Octavio Cortázar. He also received the 2016 ACTUAR Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Artistic Agency for the Performing Arts.
Born on November 24, 1928 in Santiago de Cuba, Wood moved to Havana in 1946 in search of career opportunities after having gained some experience as a theater and radio actor in his home province.
He got his start on radio in 1943 in drama which focused on the execution of eight medical students, in which he played one of the students. In 1945, at age seventeen, he joined the Comedy and Dramatic Art Company, performing in the 1844 Spanish play Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla.
He made his television in a 1952 program directed by Jesús Cabrera in which he played a peasant, a role he reprised numerous times throughout his career. In the early 1960s he made his film debut, first in a documentary, Chinchín, and later in a film, El Brigadista, appearing alongside his son, Patricio Wood.
Considered an excellent actor by critics in spite of a lack of formal training, Wood explained in several interviews that he learned by observing, reading and talking to other colleagues such as Juan Carlos Romero and Alejandro Lugo, who had studied performing arts.
Wood was married for sixty years to fellow actor Yoland Pujols, who died in 2015. It was while appearing together in a Cuban soap opea by Maité Vera, Lo que me queda vivir (Why I Go on Living), that he created one of his most memorable characters. His final appearance on the big screen was in the 2006 film Listos para la isla (Ready for the Island).
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