Antonio Pantojas (November 25, 1948 – October 2, 2017) was an actor, comedian, dancer and a pioneer in the art of drag.

Early years

Antonio Pantojas was born in Santurce and raised in Río Piedras, the largest district of the city of

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...

, in the San José area. At the age of 10, his greatest passion was dancing. His dance teachers at the time were Madame Brewer and Mario Cox. Later, in his high school years, his Spanish teacher offered him a scholarship with dancing professor Ana García. Pantojas's professional training led him to become the dancing instructor and director of the San José Ballet, in Río Piedras. His mission was to promote wholesome and enjoyable cultural, folkloric, and ballet dancing in his town. Later he enrolled in Ballets de San Juan (the San Juan Ballet Company), and participated in the ''Ita Medina'' and ''Sarita Ayala's'' ballet companies as well. Pantojas, broadening his horizons, started taking acting lessons with ''Ernesto Concepción'' in

Walter Mercado Walter Mercado Salinas (9 March 1932 – 2 November 2019), also known by his stage name Shanti Ananda, was a Puerto Rican astrologer, actor, dancer, and writer, best known as a television personality for his shows as an astrologer. His astrol ...

's Academy. He also earned a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in theater at the ''Departamento de Drama'' (Drama Faculty) of the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

in Río Piedras.

Theater debut

As the 1970s came about, he made his professional debut as an actor at the Latin American Theater Festival in the ''Coop-Arte'' theater in ''Barrio Obrero'' Santurce. He later performed the role of Herod, in '' Jesus Christ Superstar'' at the Matienzo Theater in Santurce, alongside Marian Pabón, among others.

Drag performances

Pantoja's career as a

transvestite Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex. In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional, or ceremonial reasons. The term is considered outdated in Western ...

performer began when he was auditioning for a role in a theater production, and the only one left was a woman's part. He accepted the challenge to portray that role, and it was an epiphany. From then on, it became his primary career. He wrote over 20 club acts, which he took throughout Puerto Rico, the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

, the United States, Mexico and Perú. He also hosted his own talk show, ''Estoy aquí'' (I'm Here), on

WIPR-TV WIPR-TV (channel 6) is a non-commercial educational public television station in San Juan, Puerto Rico, owned by the '' Corporación de Puerto Rico para la Difusión Pública'' (English: Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting Corporation). While WIPR- ...

, channel 6-affiliated broadcasting from

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

). A seasoned night club varieté entertainer, Pantojas made waves beginning in the Puerto Rico night club scene during the 1970s, with his musical incendiary political satires and his gender-bending characters. A versatile thespian, he played roles as diverse as

Estragon Estragon (affectionately Gogo; he tells Pozzo his name is Adam) is one of the two main characters from Samuel Beckett's '' Waiting for Godot''. His name is the French word for tarragon. Personality The impulsive misanthrope Estragon represent ...

and Pozzo in '' Waiting for Godot'', Juliet in ''El público'' (The Audience) by

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

(in its world premiere in Puerto Rico in 1978), and the small-time street-wise narrator in ''La verdadera historia de Pedro Navaja'', one of the longest-running plays in Puerto Rico's history, based on the '' Three Penny Opera''. Pantojas produced, directed, taught, wrote and performed for more than 12 years for the ''Productora Nacional de Teatro, Inc.'', a department from the ''Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña'' (National Cultural Ministry) in Puerto Rico from which he staged his versions of

Alexandre Dumas, fils Alexandre Dumas (; 27 July 1824 – 27 November 1895) was a French author and playwright, best known for the romantic novel ''La Dame aux Camélias'' (''The Lady of the Camellias''), published in 1848, which was adapted into Giuseppe Verdi's 1 ...

’ '' Camille'', Lorca's ''

La casa de Bernarda Alba ''The House of Bernarda Alba'' ( es, La casa de Bernarda Alba) is a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. Commentators have often grouped it with '' Blood Wedding'' and ''Yerma'' as a "rural trilogy". Garcia Lorca did not inc ...

'' (The House of Bernarda Alba), Jules Tasca, An American Comedy, Venezuelan Isaac Chocrón's ''La revolución'' (The Revolution), Argentine Alejandro Robino's ''Manzana podrida'' (Rotten Apple) and Chilean Marco Antonio De la Parra's ''La secreta obscenidad de cada día'' (The Secret Obscenity of Every Day), as well as the theatrical versions of ''

Weekend at Bernie's ''Weekend at Bernie's'' is a 1989 American black comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff and written by Robert Klane, loosely based on the 1959 novella '' The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell'' by Jorge Amado. The film stars Andrew McCarthy and ...

'' and ''

The Full Monty ''The Full Monty'' is a 1997 British comedy film directed by Peter Cattaneo, starring Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber and Hugo Speer. The screenplay was written by Simon Beaufoy. The film ...

''. Pantojas also appeared in various plays, including '' La Cage Aux Folles'' (The Bird's Cage), as "Zaza" and "Albin", and ''Love, Valour and Compassion'' as "Buzz". As a playwright, he took several workshops in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

(writing) and

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

Recent years

In 2003, Pantojas moved to New York, and decided that due to his age he would not perform again as a

actor. Pantojas stated that his face and his body had changed, and as he was a versatile actor, he could carry out different roles, pursuing his career as a performer in many ways. He portrayed a priest, Father Amado, in the theater production ''El silencio es salud'' (Silence Is Health), performed at the Centro Cultural Clemente Soto Vélez (The Clemente Soto Cultural Center) in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and he was featured as Amalia in the motion picture '' Under My Nails'' (2012). He died on October 2, 2017.

References

External links