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Fortunio Bonanova
Actor, Director
Born January 13, 1895Died April 2, 1969 (74 years)
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.
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.
Movies & Shows on Plex
Known For
Filmography
| 1964 | La muerte silba un blues · as Comisario Fenton |
| 1963 | The Running Man · as Spanish Bank Manager |
| 1959 | Thunder in the Sun · as Fernando Christophe |
| 1958 | 77 Sunset Strip (TV Series) · as Santos |
| 1958 | Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (TV Series) · as Cast |
| 1958 | The Saga of Hemp Brown · as Serge Bolanos |
| 1958 | Mackenzie's Raiders (TV Series) · as Col. Cortales |
| 1957 | Colt .45 (TV Series) · as Grand Duke Alexis |
| 1957 | An Affair to Remember · as Courbet |
| 1956 | The Gale Storm Show (TV Series) · as Cast |
| 1956 | The Count of Monte Cristo (TV Series) |
| 1956 | Jaguar · as Francisco Servente |
| 1955 | Kiss Me Deadly · as Carmen Trivago |
| 1955 | New York Confidential · as Senor |
| 1954 | Disneyland (TV Series) · as Inspector |
| 1954 | December Bride (TV Series) |
| 1954 | Shower of Stars (TV Series) · as Opera Singer |
| 1953 | The Girl on the Roof · as Tv Host |
| 1953 | Thunder Bay · as Sheriff Antoine Chighizola |
| 1953 | Conquest of Cochise · as Mexican Minister |
| 1953 | Second Chance · as Mandy, Hotel Owner |
| 1953 | So This Is Love · as Dr. Marafioti |
| 1953 | The Moon Is Blue · as Television Performer |
| 1953 | General Electric Theater (TV Series) |
| 1952 | The Abbott and Costello Show (TV Series) · as Uncle Bozzo |
| 1952 | My Hero (1952) (TV Series) · as Don Fernando Garcia |
| 1952 | My Little Margie (TV Series) · as Anthony Branchetti |
| 1951 | I Love Lucy (TV Series) · as Professor |
| 1950 | Racket Squad (TV Series) |
| 1950 | September Affair · as Grazzi |
| 1950 | The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (TV Series) · as The Great Gazatti |
| 1950 | The Lux Video Theatre (TV Series) · as Gargano |
| 1950 | Nancy Goes to Rio · as Ricardo Domingos |
| 1950 | Whirlpool · as Feruccio Di Ravallo |
| 1949 | Fireside Theatre (TV Series) · as Cast |
| 1949 | Badmen of Tombstone · as John Mingo |
| 1948 | Adventures of Don Juan · as Don Serafino Lopez |
| 1948 | Angel on the Amazon · as Sebastian Ortega |
| 1948 | Romance on the High Seas · as Plinio |
| 1947 | The Fugitive · as The Governor's Cousin |
| 1947 | |
| 1947 | |
| 1946 | Monsieur Beaucaire · as Don Carlos |
| 1946 | Pepita Jiménez · as Don Pedro Vargas |
| 1945 | The Sailor Takes a Wife · as Telephone Man |
| 1945 | Man Alive · as Prof. Zorado |
| 1945 | The Red Dragon · as Insp. Luis Carvero |
| 1945 | A Bell for Adano · as Gargano - Chief Of Police |
| 1945 | |
| 1945 | Where Do We Go from Here? · as Christopher Columbus |
| 1944 | Brazil · as Senor Renaldo Da Silva |
| 1944 | Mrs. Parkington · as Signor Cellini |
| 1944 | Going My Way · as Tomaso Bozanni |
| 1944 | Double Indemnity · as Sam Garlopis |
| 1943 | Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves · as Old Baba |
| 1943 | The Song of Bernadette · as Imperial Prince Louis |
| 1943 | The Sultan's Daughter · as Kuda |
| 1943 | For Whom the Bell Tolls · as Fernando |
| 1943 | Five Graves to Cairo · as Gen. Sebastiano |
| 1943 | Dixie · as Waiter |
| 1943 | Hello Frisco, Hello · as Opera Singer |
| 1942 | The Black Swan · as Don Miguel (uncredited) |
| 1942 | Girl Trouble · as Simon Cordoba |
| 1942 | Larceny, Inc · as Anton Copoulos |
| 1942 | Sing Your Worries Away · as Gaston - Headwaiter |
| 1942 | Call Out the Marines · as Chef |
| 1942 | Obliging Young Lady · as Chef |
| 1942 | Mr. and Mrs. North · as Buano |
| 1942 | Four Jacks and a Jill · as Mike - Nightclub Owner (uncredited) |
| 1941 | A Yank in the R.A.F. · as Louie - Headwaiter |
| 1941 | Unfinished Business · as Impresario |
| 1941 | Moon Over Miami · as Mr. Pretto, The Hotel Manager |
| 1941 | Citizen Kane · as Signor Matiste |
| 1941 | Blood and Sand · as Pedro Espinosa |
| 1941 | They Met in Argentina · as Pedro, Ranch Blacksmith |
| 1941 | That Night in Rio · as Pereira, The Headwaiter |
| 1940 | The Mark of Zorro · as Sentry (uncredited) |
| 1940 | Down Argentine Way · as Hotel Manager |
| 1940 | I Was an Adventuress · as Orchestra Leader |
| 1938 | Bulldog Drummond in Africa · as African Police Corporal |
| 1938 | Tropic Holiday · as Barrera |
| 1938 | Romance in the Dark · as Tenor |
| 1937 | Beg, Borrow or Steal · as Isman |
| 1932 | A Successful Calamity · as Pietro Rafaelo |
| 1932 | Careless Lady · as Rodriguez |
| 1924 | Don Juan · as Cast |