Award-winning actress Pilar Bardem, mother of Javier, is dead
Madrid, Jul 17 (EFE).- Spanish actress Pilar Bardem, doyenne of a cinema dynasty that includes director Juan Antonio Bardem and Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem, died Saturday in Madrid. She was 82.
“Our mother, our example, has died,” siblings Javier, Carlos and Monica Bardem said in a statement.
“We know the affection and admiration that so many people, inside and outside Spain, felt for the actress and the fighting and solidary person she was,” they said, alluding to their mother’s lifetime of social and political activism.
Pilar Bardem was hospitalized earlier this week with “a respiratory crisis,” a source in the Spanish film industry told Efe.
The younger sister of Juan Antonio Bardem (1922-2002) appeared in more than 80 films by directors such as Agustin Diaz Yanes and Pedro Almodovar.
In 1995, Pilar Bardem received the Goya – Spain’s equivalent of the Oscar – for best supporting actress on the strength of her performance in “Nadie hablara de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto” (Nobody Will Speak of Us When We’re Dead).
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, paid tribute to the actress.
“She leaves us an enormous legacy in film, theater and television,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter. “But the great Pilar Bardem was, above all, a defender of equality, liberty and the rights of all. Her memory will be with us always.”
Pilar Bardem served from 2002-2018 as president of AISGE, the association that protects the intellectual property rights of performers. EFE jlp/dr
