Image of Fortunio Bonanova

Fortunio Bonanova

1895-01-13 Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain

Image of Fortunio Bonanova

Biografia

Fortunio Bonanova, pseudonym of Josep Lluís Moll, (13 January 1895 – 2 April 1969) was a Spanish baritone singer and a film, theater, and television actor. He occasionally worked as a producer and director. According to Lluis Fàbregas Cuixart, the pseudonym Fortunio Bonanova referred to his desire to seek fortune, and his love of the Bonanova neighborhood in his native Palma. As a young man, living under his birthname, he was a professional telegraph operator. He studied music with the Italian Giovachini. In 1921, he debuted as a singer in Tannhäuser, at the Teatre Principal in Palma. That year, along with a group of Majorcan intellectuals and Jorge Luis Borges (who was briefly living in Majorca with his parents and sister), he signed the Ultraist Manifesto, using the name Fortunio Bonanova. Also in 1921, he appeared in a silent film of Don Juan Tenorio by the brothers Baños, which was shown the following year in New York City and Hollywood. He later directed his own Don Juan in 1924. In 1927, he acted in Love of Sunya, directed by Albert Parker and starring Gloria Swanson. In 1932 he had small parts in Hollywood productions featuring Joan Bennett and Mary Astor. In the same period, he appeared in New York in several operas as well as the zarzuelas La Canción del Olvido ("The song of forgetting"), La Duquesa del Tabarín ("The Duchess of Tabarín"), Los Gavilanes, and La Montería. In 1934, he returned to Spain, where he had a major role in the film El Desaparecido ("The disappeared one") written and directed by Antonio Graciani. In 1935 he acted and sang in the film Poderoso Caballero ("A Big Guy"), directed by Màximo Nossik. In 1936, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he returned to the United States, where he played the role of Captain Bill in a film called Capitán Tormenta, directed by Jules Bernhardt. A sequence of increasingly larger acting and singing roles mostly in English-language films followed, especially after 1940. Among his roles were Signor Matiste, Susan Alexander Kane's opera coach in Citizen Kane (1941); General Sebastiano in Five Graves to Cairo (1943); Don Miguel in The Black Swan (1942); Fernando in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943); Sam Garlopis in Double Indemnity (1944); and a singing Christopher Columbus in Where Do We Go From Here?. He continued for the next several decades in a miscellany of character roles.

Películas

La muerte silba un blues Comisario Fenton 1964-07-04
The Ballad of Hector the Stowaway Dog Inspector 1964-01-05
The Running Man Spanish Bank Manager 1963-10-01
Thunder in the Sun Fernando Christophe 1959-04-08
The Saga of Hemp Brown Serge Bolanos 1958-10-01
An Affair to Remember Courbet 1957-07-11
Jaguar Francisco Servente 1956-01-19
New York Confidential Senor 1955-02-15
Kiss Me Deadly Carmen Trivago 1955-04-28
With This Ring Senor Corelli, Opera Singer 1954-01-01
Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach TV host 1953-12-16
Conquest of Cochise Mexican Minister 1953-09-01
The Moon Is Blue Television Performer 1953-07-08
So This Is Love Dr. Marafioti 1953-07-15
Second Chance Mandy, hotel owner 1953-07-18
Thunder Bay Sheriff Antoine Chighizola 1953-05-21
Havana Rose Ambassador DeMarco 1951-09-15
Nancy Goes to Rio Ricardo Domingos 1950-03-10
September Affair Grazzi 1950-10-18
Whirlpool Feruccio di Ravallo 1950-01-13
Bad Men of Tombstone John Mingo 1949-01-21
Angel on the Amazon Sebastian Ortega 1948-11-01
Romance on the High Seas Plinio 1948-06-25
Adventures of Don Juan Don Serafino Lopez 1948-12-24
The Fugitive The Governor's Cousin 1947-11-11
La diosa arrodillada Nacho Gutiérrez 1947-08-13
Fiesta Antonio Morales 1947-06-12
Pepita Jimenez Don Pedro Vargas 1946-02-22
Monsieur Beaucaire Don Carlos 1946-09-04
A Bell for Adano Gargano - Chief of Police 1945-06-21
La pícara Susana 1945-05-31
The Red Dragon Insp. Luis Carvero 1945-08-01
Man Alive Prof. Zorado 1945-11-16
Where Do We Go from Here? Christopher Columbus 1945-05-23
Hit the Hay Mario Alvini 1945-11-29
Going My Way Tomaso Bozanni 1944-01-01
Double Indemnity Sam Garlopis 1944-07-06
Mrs. Parkington Signor Cellini 1944-10-12
My Best Gal Charlie 1944-03-28
Brazil Senor Renaldo Da Silva 1944-11-30
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Old Baba 1944-01-14
The Sultan's Daughter Kuda 1943-12-16
For Whom the Bell Tolls Fernando 1943-07-12
Dixie Waiter 1943-06-23
Five Graves to Cairo Gen. Sebastiano 1943-05-26
Obliging Young Lady Chef 1942-04-01
Larceny, Inc. Anton Copoulos 1942-04-24
The Black Swan Don Miguel (uncredited) 1942-12-04
Girl Trouble Simon Cordoba 1942-10-09
Mr. and Mrs. North Buano 1942-01-23
Four Jacks and a Jill Mike - Nightclub Owner (uncredited) 1942-01-23
Two Latins from Manhattan Armando Rivero 1941-10-02
Unfinished Business Impresario 1941-08-27
Blood and Sand Pedro Espinosa 1941-05-30
That Night in Rio Pereira, the Headwaiter 1941-04-11
Citizen Kane Signor Matiste 1941-04-17
Moon Over Miami Mr. Pretto, the Hotel Manager 1941-07-04
A Yank in the R.A.F. Louie - Headwaiter 1941-09-26
Down Argentine Way Hotel Manager 1940-10-11
I Was an Adventuress Orchestra Leader 1940-05-10
The Mark of Zorro Sentry (uncredited) 1940-11-08
Romance in the Dark Tenor 1938-03-24
Bulldog Drummond in Africa African Police Corporal 1938-08-05
Tropic Holiday Barrera 1938-06-29
El carnaval del diablo 1936-12-01
Poderoso caballero 1935-01-01
A Successful Calamity Pietro Rafaelo 1932-09-17
Careless Lady Rodriguez 1932-04-02
Pacto con el Diablo (o el socio, Mr. Davis) 1929-01-01
Las cuatro plumas 1928-12-22
Don Juan Tenorio Don Juan Tenorio 1922-10-26