Summary

María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz (Seville, March 14, 1939-Madrid, July 17, 2021) was a Spanish actress, recipient of the Goya Award and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts. Between 2002 and 2018, she was president of Artistas Intérpretes, Sociedad de Gestión, as well as of its foundation.

He was born on March 14, 1939 in Seville. She is a member of a long and illustrious saga of artists of Jewish origin on both branches: daughter of Rafael Bardem and Matilde Muñoz Sampedro, sister of Juan Antonio Bardem Muñoz (father of Miguel Bardem Aguado), niece of actresses Mercedes and Guadalupe Muñoz Sampedro and cousin of actresses Carmen Lozano Muñoz (daughter of Mercedes) and Lucía Soto Muñoz, Luchy Soto (daughter of Guadalupe), and of Conchita Bardem (on her father Rafael's side).

In 1961 Pilar Bardem married José Carlos Encinas Doussinague, the father of her four children: Carlos, Mónica, Javier Bardem (Oscar winner), and one who died shortly after his birth. Her husband was a conflictive man who made her divorce from the actress as difficult as possible and even shot her. José Carlos Encinas died in 1995, and Pilar Bardem had relationships with other actors, especially with Agustín González.

A compulsive smoker, she successfully overcame two cancers (lung and colon, for which she had to undergo two operations) and became actively involved in the trade union movement of the profession, achieving, for example, that the two daily performances, usual until then, were reduced to only one. His family shared militancy or sympathy for the Communist Party.

1960s and 1970s

Pilar Bardem broke into the cinema at an early age, in the mid-1960s. Among her works from that period are roles in films such as El mundo sigue, by Fernando Fernán Gómez (1965), Buenos días, condesita, by Luis César Amadori (1967), La novicia rebelde, by Luis Lucia (1971) and Las Ibéricas F.C., by Pedro Masó (1971).

In the 1970s, he continued to participate in many commercial films of the Spanish Transition, such as Las colocadas (1972), by Pedro Masó, La duda, by Rafael Gil (1972), Yo soy Fulana de Tal, by Pedro Lazaga (1975), but he also took part in more eccentric productions, such as La venganza de la momia and Los ojos azules de la muñeca rota, both by Carlos Aured (1973), and two adaptations of old literary works: La Regenta, by Gonzalo Suárez (1974), an adaptation of the novel by the famous writer Leopoldo Alas "Clarín", and El libro del buen amor, by Tomás Aznar and Julián Marcos (1975), based on the homonymous work by the Archpriest of Hita. That same year he took part in the first actors' strike in Spain (1975), whose main purpose was to put an end to double sessions in theaters and leave them in only one, as he tells in his memoirs.

Proof of Bardem's intense activity in the cinema of the time are other films such as La joven casada, by Mario Camus (1975), Carne apaleada, by Javier Aguirre (1978), Soldados, by Alfonso Ungría (1978), Cinco tenedores, by Fernando Fernán Gómez (1979) and El día del presidente, by Pedro Ruiz (1979).

In television, he participated in the series Cuentos y leyendas and in dramatic montages broadcasted in the program Estudio 1.

1980s and 1990s

In the 1980s, Bardem worked in television, including Los gozos y las sombras (1982), Tristeza de amor (1986), Lorca, muerte de un poeta (1987) and Cómicos (1987). He also participated in the series La huella del crimen, in the episode "El crimen de la calle Fuencarral" (1984).

In the cinema he participated in three films directed by Mariano Ozores in the middle of the decade.

In the 1990s, after playing a prostitute in Bigas Luna's Las edades de Lulú (1990), she participated as a supporting actress in Enrique Urbizu's Todo por la pasta (1991), Julio Médem's Vacas (1992), Fernando Fernán Gómez's Siete mil días juntos (1994), Enrique Urbizu's Cachito (1995), and Manuel Gómez Pereira's Boca a boca (1995).

That same year Agustín Díaz Yanes offered her a role in the film Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto, alongside Victoria Abril and Federico Luppi. The following year she won the title of Best Supporting Actress of the Year at the Goya Awards. That same night her nephew, Miguel Bardem, received the award for Best Fiction Short Film. The ceremony ended with the proclamation of Javier Bardem as Best Leading Actor.

Following this, he would accumulate roles: Airbag, by Juanma Bajo Ulloa (1996), Carne trémula, by Pedro Almodóvar (1997) and Pantaleón y las visitadoras, by Francisco Lombardi (1999). He combined these works with his participation in series such as Hermanas, Ketty no para, El Inquilino, or Abierto 24 horas, alongside Pedro Reyes, Beatriz Rico and Luis Merlo. In 1998 she dubbed Fernanda Montenegro in the role of Dora in the film Central do Brasil, for which she was nominated for the Oscar Award for best actress.

2000s

Bardem began the decade with films such as Agustín Díaz Yanes' Sin noticias de Dios and José Miguel Juárez's Cosa de brujas (2003).

In theater he participated in 5 mujeres.com, where he recited monologues about the condition of women in a sexist society. Bardem starred in the play with Llum Barrera, Beatriz Carvajal and Toni Acosta. The four of them were jointly nominated for the Silver Fotogramas.

Prime Minister José María Aznar supported the Iraq War and the group of Spanish performers expressed their opposition to such a war intervention at the 2003 Goya Awards gala. A few weeks later, María Barranco, Amparo Larrañaga, Ana Belén, Juan Echanove, Jordi Dauder, Juan Luis Galiardo and Pilar Bardem herself were invited to a session in the Congress of Deputies. These performers wore T-shirts that clearly read a slogan: "No to war". After the incident they were expelled from the chamber. Twenty-four hours later, Pilar Bardem became president of the Culture Against War association. Since then, she has participated in numerous events and demonstrations together with other artists, such as the fight against gender violence, and has defended her principles and political convictions.

That same year (2004), Bardem starred in José Luis García Sánchez's María querida, a biography of María Zambrano, which earned him the Silver Spike at the Valladolid SEMINCI, as well as a new nomination for the Goya Awards.

The following year he starred in the series Amar en tiempos revueltos, set in the Spanish Civil War and the years of Franco's dictatorship. He remained during the first and half of the second season (2005-2007), and during the filming of the series he participated in Alatriste, by Agustín Díaz Yanes (2006).

Latest works

In the following years she appeared in films such as La bicicleta, by Sigfrid Monleón (2006), La vida en rojo, by Andrés Linares (2008), La vida empieza hoy, by Laura Mañá (2010), or the adaptation of the Kika Superbruja stories, by Ludger Jochmann: Kika Superbruja y el libro de los hechizos, by Stefan Ruzowitzky (2009), and its sequel Kika Superbruja: El viaje a Mandolán, by Harald Sicheritz (2011). He also made small collaborations in television series: Martes de Carnaval, based on the play of the same name by Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, Hay alguien ahí, Doctor Mateo, Hospital Central or Cuéntame cómo pasó.

With the arrival of the new century, Pilar suffered a lung cancer operation due to her excesses with tobacco, from which she eventually recovered. She was always excited to work. She had an enormous vitality, and besides being a great actress, she was the symbol of a fighter and independent woman. During the last decade of her life she suffered from various health problems and suffered heavy colds, which led to lung disease, being common to see her with oxygen mask in the last public appearances. During the last days of her life she was admitted to the Ruber clinic in Madrid, where she died at the age of 82 on Saturday morning, July 17, 2021. Her body was later cremated in the Madrid town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

On December 19, 2021, the delegate of the Polisario Front in Spain, Abdulah Arabi, announced that Pilar Bardem would receive posthumously the Saharawi nationality, a title collected by her sons Carlos and Javier during the celebration of the second edition of FiSahara, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.

Sources

1. Pilar Bardem
2. Pilar Bardem
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4. https://spsrasd.info/news/es/articles/2021/12/19/37023.html
5. «Medallas del CEC a la producción española de 2004». Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos. Archivado desde el original el 6 de mayo de 2021. Consultado el 10 de enero de 2016.
6. ^ "Pilar Bardem ha cumplido 70 años". ¡Hola!. 15 March 2009.
7. ^ a b c d e f Laviana, Juan Carlos (18 July 2021). "Pilar Bardem, actriz, matriarca y luchadora". El Español.
8. ^ Wilkinson, Tracy (22 February 2008). "No new territory for ol' Mom". Los Angeles Times. Madrid. p. 2. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
9. ^ "Desalojados artistas del Congreso por mostrar camisetas con el "No a la guerra"". La Vanguardia. 5 February 2003.
10. Muere la actriz Pilar Bardem a los 82 años
11. (es) « Muere Pilar Bardem a los 82 años a causa de una enfermedad pulmonar », sur www.bekia.es (consulté le 28 août 2021)
12. a et b (en) Alberto Mira, Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema, Scarecrow Press, 2010, 496 p. (ISBN 9780810873759, lire en ligne), p. 38-39
13. (es) El País, « IU ficha a Pilar Bardem y a García Montero », El País,‎ 7 mai 2004 (ISSN 1134-6582, lire en ligne)