Emilio Echevarria has died at the age of 80 (Picture: Victor Chavez/WireImage)
Mexican actor Emilio Echevarría, best known for starring in Babel, Amores Perros, The Alamo, and the James Bond franchise, has died at the age of 80.
The Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences announced the news of his death in an X post while remembering his ‘enormous career’ in TV and film.
‘The AMACC regrets the sensitive death of actor Emilio Echevarría, who forged an enormous career in film and theater. He received three Ariel nominations for his participation as a side actor,’ the academy wrote.
No further details were given, and a cause of death is yet to be confirmed.
Echevarría acted alongside Pierce Brosnan in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day, where he portrayed Cuba-based sleeper agent Raoul.
He starred in Die Another Day alongside Pierce Brosnan (Picture: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Echevarría was best known for his role in Amores Perros (Picture: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)
Tributes have flooded in, with Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga writing on X: ‘Sad news for those of us who loved and admired him. Emilio Echevarría has died.”
He continued: ‘A tremendous actor and an even better human being. A dear friend. I had the privilege of collaborating with him on several productions. A great man.’
The three-time Ariel Award nominee’s acting career started in his 30s, when he got into theatre.
His early film roles came in the 1980s, when he became famous for his role as El Chivo (The Goat) in Alejandro G Inarritu’s 2000 Oscar-nominated drama Amores Perros.
Echevarría got into acting in his 30s after being an accountant (Picture: Pedro Martin Gonzalez Castillo/Getty Images)
Off the back of this, Echevarría landed roles in Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien, Inarritu’s Babel (which was nominated for an Oscar), Die Another Day, and he portrayed Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna in the 2004 US production of The Alamo.
Recently Echevarría starred in Prime Video series Mozart in the Jungle in 2015 to 2016 and The Chosen in 2018.
He clocked up three nominations in Mexico’s equivalent to The Oscars for his roles in Dying in the Gulf (1990), A Monster With a Thousand Heads (2016) and The Chosen.
Born in Mexico City on July 3, 1944, Echevarría studied accounting at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and continued in this line of work before taking to acting.
‘One day, when I was 31, I received a phone call from a woman friend inviting me to be in a play. She knew I wasn’t an actor,’ he recalled in a 2008 interview.
‘I told her I worked all day at my office. She told me rehearsals and shows were at night. I asked no further and I took up the invitation. At the first rehearsal, I knew that that was the most pleasurable calling and work I could do.’
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