1. Francisco Rabal Valera, popularly known as Paco Rabal, was a Spanish actor.
14 Facts About Francisco Rabal
1. 2.
Francisco Rabal's career spanned more than 200 film and television roles, between 1942 and 2001.
3.
Francisco Rabal received numerous accolades both in Spain and abroad, the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor Award and the Goya Award for Best Actor.
4.
Francisco Rabal was born in Aguilas, a town in the south-western part of the province of Murcia.
5.
Young Francisco Rabal had to work as a street salesboy and in a chocolate factory.
6.
Francisco Rabal used his full name, Francisco Rabal, as his stage name.
7.
Francisco Rabal starred in three films directed by Luis Bunuel - Nazarin, Viridiana and Belle de jour - with whom he would develop a lifelong friendship.
8.
Francisco Rabal was William Friedkin's first choice to play the antagonist Alain Charnier in his 1971 film The French Connection.
9.
Friedkin later discovered that Francisco Rabal did not speak English or French, so he decided to keep Rey.
10.
Francisco Rabal did work with Friedkin in the much less successful but Academy Award-nominated cult classic Sorcerer, a remake of The Wages of Fear.
11.
Francisco Rabal died in 2001 from compensatory dilating emphysema while on an airplane travelling to Bordeaux, returning from having received an Award at the Montreal World Film Festival.
12.
Francisco Rabal's death happened only a few weeks before he was due to collect the lifetime Donostia Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
13.
Francisco Rabal is the only Spanish actor to have received an honoris causa doctoral degree from the University of Murcia.
14.
Murcia's Film Library and Cinematheque, Filmoteca Regional Francisco Rabal, created in 2004 as a meeting point for movie lovers, was named after him.