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Ignacio López Tarso
Tarso in 2015
Born	Ignacio López López (1925-01-15)15 January 1925 Mexico City, Mexico
Died	11 March 2023(2023-03-11) (aged 98) Mexico City, Mexico
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1940s–2023
Spouse	Clara Aranda ​ (died 2000)​
Children	3; includingJuan Ignacio
Awards	List of awards

Ignacio López Tarso (bornIgnacio López López; 15 January 1925 – 11 March 2023) was a Mexican actor of stage, film and television. He acted in about 50 films and appeared in documentaries and in one short feature. In 1973 he was given theAriel Award for Best Actor forRosa Blanca, and theAriel de Oro lifetime achievement award in 2007. He was honored multiple times at theTVyNovelas Awards. At the time of his death, along withArmando Silvestre, he was the oldest living actor and one of the last surviving stars from theGolden Age of Mexican cinema.^[1]

López Tarso was born inMexico City^[2] to parents Alfonso López Bermúdez and Ignacia López Herrera, first cousins from the state ofGuanajuato.^[3] Because of his father's job, he spent his childhood in several cities includingVeracruz,Hermosillo,Navojoa andGuadalajara. He had two siblings: Alfonso and Marta. At around age 8-9, when he was in Guadalajara, his parents took him to see a play, where he became interested in acting.^{[citation needed]}

López Tarso lived inValle de Bravo,Estado de México, where he went to secondary school. Although his family's economic problems kept him from attending high school, he joinedseminaries inTemascalcingo,Estado de México, and Mexico City to continue his education. During his time there, a visiting priest from the United States organized a group to perform plays, in which he participated. He learned to read oral poetry and books of classical plays, including those byLope de Vega andCalderón de la Barca.^{[citation needed]}

When he was 20, he joined the military service atQuerétaro, where he was in barracks for about a year. He also served in the Veracruz andMonterrey regiments, and eventually reached First Sergeant grade. After completing his service, he declined an opportunity to attend military school, even though he liked the discipline.^{[citation needed]}

López Tarso worked in Mexico City as a sales agent for a clothing company. He aspired to work in the United States, and planned to work at an orange grove inMerced, California. However, a few days in, he fell from a tree and injured his vertebrae. He returned to Mexico City for rehabilitation therapy which lasted about a year.^{[citation needed]}

While López was in physical therapy, he read books on poetry and theatre, and became a fan of authorXavier Villaurrutia. After his recovery, he heard that Villaurrutia was teaching theatre at thePalacio de Bellas Artes, so he visited him, initially to ask for his autograph, but then was invited to listen in on his lessons. After a few days, he formally joined the theatre academy at age 24. When Villaurrutia advised Lopez to pick astage name, he changed from "López López" to "López Tarso"; the Tarso was Spanish forPaul the Apostle's hometown ofTarsus, and also one of the cities in Mexico where Lopez had once lived. Besides Villaurrutia, he studied under other masters such asSalvador Novo,Clementina Otero,Celestino Gorostiza, André Moreau, Seki Sano,Fernando Wagner and Fernando Torre Lapham.

López Tarso's professional stage debut was in 1951 for the playBorn Yesterday byGarson Kanin. He would also perform in severalWilliam Shakespeare plays such asA Midsummer Night's Dream,Macbeth,Othello andKing Lear. Other productions included:The Crucible byArthur Miller,Oedipus Rex andOedipus at Colonus bySophocles,Hippolytus byEuripides,La Celestina byFernando de Rojas,Cyrano de Bergerac byEdmond Rostand,The Miser byMolière,El villano en su rincón by Lope de Vega,The Mayor of Zalamea by Calderón de la Barca,Exit the king byEugène Ionesco, and "Equus" by Peter Shaffer. He also performed works from authorsSor Juana Inés de la Cruz,Miguel de Cervantes,Guillén de Castro, Hugo Argüelles, Emilio Carballido,Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, over a hundred productions throughout his career.

Ignacio López Tarso's theatrical work has been mostly performing in drama, though in the years 2014 and 2015 he starred in a two-person comedy written byCarlos Gorostiza and titledAeroplanos ("Airplanes"); his performance on stage was presented withSergio Corona who alternated appearances withManuel "Loco" Valdés. The play was presented at theTeatro Independencia in Mexico City.

López Tarso's film debut was in 1954, when he played a minor character inLa desconocida, which was directed by Chano Urueta.^[4][5]

He played the title characterMacario, a supernatural drama directed byRoberto Gavaldón set on theDay of the Dead. The film was entered into the1960 Cannes Film Festival.^[6] and was the first Mexican film to be nominated for anAcademy Award forBest Foreign Language Film in 1961.^[7] López Tarso won a Golden Gate Award for Best Actor at theSan Francisco International Film Festival in 1960, and another for his work in the 1963 filmEl hombre de papel (released in English asThe Paper Man), directed byIsmael Rodríguez.

In 1961, López Tarso starred inRosa Blanca, directed by Gavaldón. Because the film was censured by political interests of the time, it was not released until 1972. He won theAriel Award for Best Actor in 1973. Other notable movie performances included:Cri Cri, el grillito cantor (1963), directed by Tito Davison;La vida inútil de Pito Pérez (1969), directed by Gavaldón;The prophet Mimi (1972), directed by José Estrada;Rapiña (1973), directed by Carlos Enrique Taboada; andThe bricklayers (1976), directed byJorge Fons.^[4]

As part of theGolden Age of Mexican cinema, López Tarso acted in over fifty films, sharing starring roles with actors such asDolores del Río,María Félix,Marga López,Carlos López Moctezuma,Elsa Aguirre,Luis Aguilar,Katy Jurado,Irasema Dilián,Pedro Armendáriz andEmilioel indio Fernández.

Besides film, López Tarso appeared in over twenty television series, and released eight albums, in many of which he recited poems andcorridos about theMexican Revolution. He also positions in various organizations and trade unions related to the acting and cinematographic professions. Between 1988 and 1991 he served as afederal deputy, representingMexico City's eighth district for theInstitutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).^[8][9]

López Tarso married Clara Aranda, who predeceased him in 2000. They had three children: Susana, Gabriela and the actorJuan Ignacio Aranda.^[10]

On 22 May 2016, Tarso underwent surgery to treat a growingtumor in hislarge intestine andpolyps in hissmall intestine.^[11] Tarso was later placed inintensive care.^[11]

In early March 2023, López Tarso was hospitalized for pneumonia and an intestinal obstruction.^[12] He died in Mexico City on 11 March 2023, at the age of 98.^[13]

López Tarso won many Mexican and international awards including the following:

• Golden Gate Award (San Francisco International Film Festival 1960, United States) Best Actor forMacario.
• Golden Gate Award (San Francisco International Film Festival 1963, United States) Best Actor forThe Paper Man.
• Ariel Award (Mexican Academy of Film, 1973, Mexico) Best Actor forRosa Blanca.
• Association of Latin Entertainment Critics Award (2001, United States).
• Hispanic Heritage Society Award (2006, United States).
• Ariel de Oro (Mexican Academy of Film, 2007, Mexico) for his lifetime achievement in the film industry. Shared award with thecinematographer, Rosalío Solano.
• TVyNovelas Awards (Mexican Award 2011, Mexico) for his lifetime achievement on stage. Shared award with the actress,Silvia Pinal

This sectionneeds expansion with: add studio albums and compilations here. You can help byadding missing information.(March 2014)

1964Corridos De La Revolucion (CBS)

1966Mas Corridos - Volumen 2 (CBS)

1969Relatos Y Corridos De La Revolucion Mexicana (CBS)

1972En Las Trincheras De La Revolucion Con Ignacio López Tarso (CBS)

• Ignacio López Tarso atIMDb.
• Estrellas del Cine Mexicano: Ignacio López Tarso,ITESM Database(in Spanish).

• 1925 births
• 2023 deaths
• Best Actor Ariel Award winners
• Columbia Records artists
• Deaths from pneumonia in Mexico
• Deputies of the LIV Legislature of Mexico
• Golden Ariel Award winners
• Mexican male television actors
• Mexican male telenovela actors
• Mexican male stage actors
• Mexican male film actors
• Male actors from Mexico City
• Male Shakespearean actors
• Mexican actor-politicians
• 20th-century Mexican male actors
• 21st-century Mexican male actors

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