Gómez, Carmelo

(1962- )

   Carmelo Gómez was first noticed by audiences for his strongly physical performance in Julio Medem's Vacas (Cows, 1992). In that film, he played a Basque everyman, with three roles covering three different generations of a family. This physicality remained one of his best assets, perfectly used by Medem again in La ardilla roja (The Red Squirrel, 1993) and the metaphorical fantasy Tierra (Earth, 1996), and by Imanol Uribe in Días contados (Numbered Days, 1994), where he played a terrorist in love with a junkie and was awarded the best actor Goya that year.

   Restrained and slightly humorless, he projected a brand of classical, serene masculinity that was particularly effective in El detective y la muerte (Detective and Death, Gonzalo Suárez, 1994). He then attempted comedy in El perro del hortelano (Dog in the Orchard, Pilar Miró, 1996) and Entre las piernas (Between the Legs, Manuel Gómez Pereira, 1999), but failed to project the lightness of touch the genre required. His best recent performance was in Gonzalo Suárez's El portero (The Goalkeeper, 2000), where he played a goalkeeper who travels to Asturias after the Civil War and meets a group of anti-Franco guerilla fighters. He has received critical acclaim and awards for his work in La noche de los girasoles (Night of the Sunflowers, Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo, 2006) and El método (The Method, Marcelo Piñeyro, 2005), for which he won another Goya, this time as supporting actor.