Marcelo Romo

Actor · Writer

Santiago, Chile

April 23, 1941

Biography

Marcelo Romo (Santiago, April 23, 1941 – January 23, 2018) was a renowned Chilean actor of film, theater, and television. Trained at the University of Chile’s School of Theater, he became one of the leading figures of Chilean acting from the 1960s onward. He made his film debut in El Chacal de Nahueltoro (1969) by Miguel Littín, playing a journalist —a landmark in Chilean cinema that marked the beginning of a prolific film career spanning over thirty titles. During the Pinochet dictatorship, Romo went into exile in Venezuela, where he continued his career in film, participating in movies such as La máxima felicidad (1982) and Señora Bolero (1991), as well as in theater, and television, later working also in Mexico and Colombia. He returned to Chile in the 1990s and became a familiar face in popular TV series such as Rojo y Miel, Sucupira, Estúpido Cupido, and Pecadores (his last television appearance, in 2003). A versatile and socially committed performer, Romo was admired for the emotional depth of his characters and his dedication to the arts. He spent his final years away from the public eye due to Alzheimer’s disease and passed away in Santiago in 2018, aged 76.