If we are strict, the beginning of his career as a film actor was with the pronunciation of “hey, puppeteer” in The Witch Riders (1966). But those couple of words are a little prologue to his great performance as a star in that same movie. Well, he didn’t know that he was about to become one of Mexico’s film glories when his character as head of the thugs yelled the following: “Shut up, you damned doll.”
That exasperated phrase addressed to a puppet was the beginning of a prolific career in the film industry. Having personified a nameless villain, with little dialogue and a bad face, opened the doors to a universe that he entered by accident with 44 years of age on top. Without a doubt, an extraordinary case.
While many young actors of the time began showing up in the theater to make themselves known, or accepting filling roles in some films to gradually introduce themselves to the cinema, Mario Almada was touched by the goddess fortune to become a star on the big screen at a rare age. And it was all circumstantial.
Due to the fact that Bruno Rey suffered an accident that prevented him from being active and the budget had run out to hire an actor of his stature, Fernando Almada proposed to his brother to go on stage. Don Mario accepted under the condition of saying fewer speeches than those that were written for Rey because he was not going to learn them and because his character only demanded to shoot some puppets.
He never imagined that this would be enough to surprise friends and strangers. Carlos Savage, editor de The horsemen of the witch, He recommended that he continue as a film actor because he had an attractive bearing and a pleasant voice for the public. Heeding him, Mario Almada found a place in the national western, a genre where he was catapulted as a box office magnet.
As if that were not enough, as if the stars had aligned in his favor, the action genre appeared in his way. There he finished rising. Identified as a vigilante, he established himself as an atypical hero because he was not a heartthrob, he lacked muscles and he dealt bullets with more than 60 years. He fought against drug traffickers, bank robbers, demons, punks, murderous trailers, soccer federation and members of satanic sects. The only thing missing was fighting against himself.
He died leaving a legacy with more than 350 titles under his belt, quite a considerable amount for a man who became an actor by chance because of a puppet he must have yelled at in The Witch Riders.
