Venezuelan actor Raal Amundaray dies - Venezuelan actor Raúl Amundaray, star of several of the most remembered soap operas in Latin America for more than half a century, died Tuesday. He was 82 years old.

The actor died in a hospital in the American city of Houston, his daughter Omira Amundaray reported on his Facebook page, without giving details.

Considered by his bearing an "eternal heartthrob", Amundaray rose to fame in 1965 in this South American nation as the protagonist of The Right to Be Born, based on a successful Cuban soap opera of the same name, of the legendary Cuban writer Félix B. Caignet.

The soap opera - the first one with an hour duration and that remained in the air for more than two years at a time when the melodrams were broadcast live and none of them reached the time - was a resounding success. Virtually paralyzed the country and opened the way to the once thriving industry of dramatic Venezuelans.

Since the 1970s, soap operas were one of the main non-traditional export products of the oil country and used to be dubbed into Russian, Korean and Hebrew, among other languages.

Amundaray shared reflectors with some of the most talented Venezuelan actresses of all time, including Agustina Martín, Eva Moreno, Marina Baura, Doris Wells and Lupita Ferrer.

Venezuelan actor Raal Amundaray dies

Amundaray highlighted in The Usurper (1971), Valentina (1975), Resurrection (1977), The Assassination of Delgado Chalbaud (1980) and Cristal (1985), all produced by RCTV, a television station that began broadcasting in 1953 and whose transmission license did not It was renewed after its expiration in May 2007. The cessation of transmissions came after repeated threats by then Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who accused his coup owners.

Chavez argued that RCTV violated the transmission and de facto laws supported the 2002 coup d'etat, which briefly separated it from power, by offering partial coverage of the events.

Among the last soap operas of Amundaray, stand out ¿Vieja yo? (2008) and Anyway Roses (2013).

“Raúl Amundaray was the Venezuelan actor who best represented the archetype of the classic gallant. It marked tremendously a whole era of the Venezuelan soap opera. He became the sum of all his characters. He was a gentleman. I am very sorry for his death ”, wrote on Twitter Leonardo Padrón, Venezuelan writer of the soap opera La Mujer Perfecta (2010) in which Amundaray had a special appearance.

The decline of the Venezuelan soap opera industry and the severe economic and social crisis that plagued this nation closed the doors of television to many. Producing up to 12 soap operas a year, now it is a rarity if at least one is recorded.

Dozens of actors left to start over in other countries, while others like Amundaray, who did not think about the retreat, decided to stay. For years he directed an acting academy waiting for national production to be revived, but in the end he ended up closing his academy and settled in Houston.

In a recent interview published by the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal, Amundaray commented that he spent his time “slowly, living life calmly, haste was never elegant. I have adapted to this because here you live very well. ”

The decline in the production of soap operas accelerated after the election of Chávez in 1998 and the approval of a 2004 law that imposed fines and severe penalties on producers who did not adhere to the vague rules that defined the contents of a social programming responsable. RCTV aired three years later.

Amundaray, born in Caracas on May 18, 1937, married Omira Habibe in 1970 and divorced in 1993. He had three children. With his current wife, actress and sculpture Kayla Díaz, he had a daughter.