Patricio Contreras (born December 15, 1947) is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an-

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

television, film and stage actor.

Biography

Contreras was born in

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

in 1947 and emigrated to neighboring Argentina following the 1973 coup d'état against left-wing President

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his death in 1973 Chilean coup d'état, 1973. As a ...

, of whom Contreras was a vocal supporter.''Clarín'': Contreras, con Sandino (May 9, 1988). He was shortly afterwards cast in a number of minor

Argentine cinema Cinema of Argentina refers to the film industry based in Argentina. The Argentine cinema comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of Argentina or by Argentine filmmakers abroad. The Argentine film industry has histo ...

roles, notable among them a part in Adolfo Aristarain's 1978 crime thriller, '' La parte del león'' (''The Lion's Share''). He married an up-and-coming Argentine actress, Leonor Manso, in 1981, and in 1983, he was given his first significant film role as the treacherous Sergeant Comini in Aristarain's '' Funny Dirty Little War''.''Clarín'': Como si no hubiese pasado el tiempo (8/8/2007)
/ref> Contreras then gave what became perhaps his best-known performance as the targeted Professor Benítez in the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

-winning ''

The Official Story ''The Official Story'' () is a 1985 Argentine historical political drama film directed by Luis Puenzo and written by Puenzo and Aída Bortnik. It stars Norma Aleandro, Héctor Alterio, Chunchuna Villafañe and Hugo Arana. In the United Kingd ...

'' (1985), for which he was awarded a

Silver Condor The Argentine Film Critics Association () is an organization of Argentine-based journalists and correspondents. The association presents the ''Silver Condor Awards'' (''Premios Cóndor de Plata'') honoring achievements in Argentine cinema. The aw ...

.IMDb Awards
/ref> This was followed a leading role in

Juan José Jusid Juan José Jusid (born September 26, 1941) is an Argentine film director and screenwriter. Career Jusid was born in Buenos Aires. He started his professional career as an actor, puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate ...

's emotional look at exile, '' Made in Argentina'' (1986), which earned Contreras a

Havana Film Festival The Havana Film Festival is a Cuban festival that focuses on the promotion of Latin American filmmakers. It is also known in Spanish as ''Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana,'' and in English as International Festiv ...

Best Actor Award.Cine Nacional: Patrcio Contreras
/ref> He appeared next to

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...

and

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Recognized as a film icon, Jane Fonda filmography, Fonda's work spans several genres and over six decades of film and television. She is the recipient of List of a ...

in the 1989 movie '' Old Gringo''. He starred in fellow Chilean exile

Miguel Littín Miguel Ernesto Littin Cucumides (born 9 August 1942) is a Chilean film director, screenwriter, film producer and novelist. He was born in Palmilla, Colchagua Valley. CHILE. Career Miguel Littin directed ''Jackal of Nahueltoro, El Chacal de Nahu ...

's '' Sandino'' (1990), and the end of General

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

's dictatorship in 1990 allowed Contreras to return to Chile itself, where he starred as the lead in Ricardo Larraín's '' La Frontera'' (1991). Continuing to live and work in Argentina, he starred in Betty Kaplan's adaptation of Chilean writer Isabel Allende's '' Of Love and Shadows'' (1995), and to his film credits were added those in the local theatre, notably his work in a local, 1996-98 production of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

'' (directed by his wife). His marriage suffered, however, and the couple were divorced in 2001. Among Contreras' later film roles some of the best-known are as writer

Rodolfo Walsh Rodolfo Jorge Walsh (January 9, 1927 – March 25, 1977) was an Argentine writer and journalist of Irish descent, considered the founder of investigative journalism in Argentina. He is most famous for his '' Open Letter from a Writer to the Milit ...

's version of

Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by the English writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is Christie's most famous and longest-running character, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee'' and '' ...

in Santiago Carlos Oves' '' Asesinato a Distancia'' (''Murder at a Distance'', 1998), and as the merciless detective in Eduardo Mignogna's fact-based '' La fuga'' (''The Escape'', 2001). He was reunited with his ex-wife for the stage in 2007 in her production of

Sarah Kane Sarah Kane (3 February 1971 – 20 February 1999) was an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. She is known for her plays that deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture—both physical and psychological ...

's '' Blasted''. Contreras continues to live in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and remains a prolific film and stage actor.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Contreras, Patricio 1947 births Living people Chilean male film actors Argentine male film actors Chilean exiles Chilean emigrants to Argentina Male actors from Santiago, Chile 20th-century Argentine male actors 20th-century Chilean male actors