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Paul Naschy is a Actor, Director, Scriptwriter and Producer Espagnol born on 7 september 1934 at Madrid (Espagne)

Paul Naschy

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Birth name Jacinto Molina Álvarez
Nationality Espagne
Birth 7 september 1934 at Madrid (Espagne)
Death 30 november 2009 (at 75 years) at Madrid (Espagne)

Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina Álvarez, September 6, 1934 – November 30, 2009) was a Spanish movie actor, screenwriter, and director working primarily in horror films. His portrayals of numerous classic horror figures—the Wolfman, Frankenstein's Monster, Count Dracula, the Hunchback, and the Mummy —have earned him recognition as the Spanish Lon Chaney. He had one of the most recognizable faces in Spanish horror film.But Naschy also starred in dozens of action films, historical dramas, crime movies, TV shows and documentaries as well. In addition to acting, Naschy also wrote the screenplays for most of his films and directed a number of them as well. King Juan Carlos I presented Naschy with Spain's Gold Medal Award for Fine Arts in 2001 in honor of his work, the Spanish equivalent of being knighted.

Biography

Naschy was born in Madrid in 1934, and grew up during the Spanish Civil War, a period of great turmoil in Spanish history. His father Enrique Molina was a successful furrier, and Naschy grew up in very comfortable surroundings, at one point living in a veritable country mansion. After college, Naschy started out as a professional weightlifter, but soon gravitated to filmmaking. His favorite film character from childhood was the Wolf Man, dating back to when he saw the classic Universal film Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) as a child. At times, he tried his hand at designing record album covers, writing pulp western novels and drawing comic book stories, but did not meet with much success. In his 20's, Naschy moved back and forth between professional weightlifting and acting, but wasn't able to secure important roles, usually obtaining bit parts.

Naschy had an uncredited bit part in the classic 1961 Biblical epic King of Kings and a few other films of that period, and the experience drew him further into filmmaking. While appearing as an extra in an episode of the American TV show I Spy that was being filmed in Spain in 1966, Naschy met horror icon Boris Karloff on the set, a thrill he never forgot. (Karloff was in a very poor mood that day, apparently depressed and in poor health. This encounter led to a posthumously produced film biography on Naschy being entitled The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry.)

In 1968, at age 34, he wrote a screenplay for a werewolf movie entitled La Marca del Hombre Lobo (about a Polish werewolf named Waldemar Daninsky) and managed to interest some German producers into financing it. Naschy never intended to play "el Hombre Lobo" (as the doomed lycanthrope came to be called in Spain), he just wound up with the part when the producers couldn't find a suitable actor. (They had tried to hire Lon Chaney Jr., but at age 62, the fabled Hollywood horror star was far too sickly to travel). Naschy later wrote and starred in eleven sequels featuring his Waldemar Daninsky character, and spun off a very successful acting and directing career in the process.

Naschy wrote the screenplays for most of the films he starred in, especially the horror movies. His most prolific year was 1972, during which time he wrote and starred in no less than seven movies! During the 1970s, Naschy worked for some of the best Euro-horror film directors in the business, including Leon Klimovsky, Carlos Aured, Javier Aguirre, Jose Luis Madrid, Juan Piquer Simon, Francisco Lara Polop and Jose Luis Merino. In 1976, he decided to try his hand at directing as well, choosing the costume drama Inquisicion as his first project.

He did well initially, even producing and directing a number of successful Japanese/Spanish co-productions and made-for-TV documentaries, but by 1984, his films were no longer breaking even, and after losing a lot of money on his ill-conceived spy spoof Operation Mantis (1984), Naschy's production company, Aconito Films, wound up in bankruptcy. (Aconito is the scientific term for the herb wolfsbane).

On June 20, 1984, Naschy's father Enrique Molina died of a heart attack while fishing alone on the shores of a lake. Some boys playing in the woods discovered his body, too late to revive him. The unexpected sudden loss of his father (with whom he had always been very close), coinciding with the bankruptcy of his production company, plunged Naschy into a lengthy period of depression, only returning to filmmaking in 1987 with his cult classic El Aullido del Diablo. Naschy's son Sergio starred in the film, along with famed horror icons Howard Vernon and Caroline Munro (the film was very poorly distributed unfortunately, and is still not available on DVD).

Naschy's career took a second downturn when he suffered a near-fatal heart attack himself on Aug. 27, 1991, triggered by weightlifting in a local gym. He was hospitalized for more than a week, then had major heart surgery performed on Sept. 5th. A rumor circulated throughout horror film fandom that Naschy had died, since he disappeared from the film scene for a while after his operation. He had to later contact a number of fanzine publishers in various countries to inform them that he was still very much alive.

In 1996, Naschy wrote and starred in his eleventh werewolf film Licantropo, which he thought would be a big comeback film for him, but the movie didn't do well at all, critically or financially. He continued to appear in a number of low budget horror films and crime dramas however during the following decade, during which time he won a number of prestigious fan awards and appeared as a celebrated guest at many horror film conventions (both in the United States and in Europe), although he was always doing poorly financially and complained bitterly in interviews about the state of the corrupt Spanish film industry. In 1997, Naschy wrote a detailed autobiography entitled "Memoirs of a Wolf Man" (which included his complete filmography as well).

Naschy even travelled to Hollywood briefly in 2004 to appear in two filmed-on-video horror flicks directed by Don Glut and Fred Olen Ray, two former horror fans-turned-directors who must have treated him like royalty on the set. During his sojourn in Hollywood, Naschy even visited the famed "Ackermansion" museum of Forrest J. Ackerman, the editor of the legendary Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine.

Naschy died of pancreatic cancer on November 30, 2009. He was 75 years old. He struggled desperately to stay alive but the end was inevitable. Although he ended his life in relatively poor financial straits, Naschy always received a tremendous outpouring of love from his many fans at the conventions he attended and died knowing he would always be regarded as a major horror film icon.

Naschy was married only once, on Oct. 24, 1969, to a woman named Elvira Primavera, the daughter of an Italian diplomat living in Spain. They were still happily married 40 years later at the time of his death. His wife was always very supportive of Naschy's filmmaking projects and was undoubtedly one of the factors that led to his success. He was survived by his widow Elvira and his two sons, Bruno and Sergio Molina.

Naschy's favorite director was Leon Klimovsky, with whom he made 8 horror & action films. Naschy praised Klimovsky's professional workmanlike attitude, but he always felt that Klimovsky rushed through the filming and never allowed for enough retakes that might have improved some of their films. He also enjoyed working for director Carlos Aured, and was proud of the films they did together.

The only horror film actor who ever portrayed Dracula, The Mummy, The Frankenstein Monster, Fu Manchu, the Hunchback, Rasputin, a Warlock, a Zombie, a medieval Inquisitor, a serial killer (not to mention a werewolf in 15 different films) died on November 30, 2009 from pancreatic cancer in Madrid.

An excellent hardcover book entitled "Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo" was published in Germany after Naschy's death, collecting hundreds of rare photos, lobby cards, posters, etc. that had been used to promote Naschy's films over the decades in a number of different countries. A comprehensive film biography entitled Paul Naschy: The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry was also recently released and is highly recommended.