Mario Martínez-Casado Admas

Cuban actor of theater, radio, film and television, director and theatrical entrepreneur; performer of particular charisma, discoverer and trainer of young talents; figure remembered by theater audiences and thousands of television viewers, also by greats of the Cuban stage such as Rosa Fornés, María de los Ángeles Santana, Gladys Puig, Pedro Arias and Maruja Calvo.

Native of Cienfuegos. Nephew of the distinguished Cuban actress Luisa Martínez Casado and sixth son of the marriage of actors Manuel Martínez Casado and Celia Adams.

Director and entrepreneur of comedy companies, he organizes extensive seasons in different Havana theaters with a fundamentally Hispanic repertoire.

Son of Manuel Martínez Casado and Celia Admas, from childhood he traveled with the family troupe through various cities. Very soon he enlisted in the companies of other entrepreneurs throughout the Island, forging himself as an actor, singer and stage director who would later appear in dramas and comedies, zarzuelas and operettas; in theater, radio, film and television.

As an adolescent he joined Paco Martínez's theatrical company as an administrative assistant. When they were touring Sagua de Tánamo (Holguín), he filled in for an actor who left the cast and never again could he step away from the stage. He was only seventeen years old when he debuted as a comic tenor in the operetta La duquesa de Bal Tabaran and learned the basic codes of the profession and achieved a repertoire that led him to various groups that toured throughout the country.

At just twenty years old, he was called for the inauguration of the Havana Teatro Regina, where he triumphed in works such as Niña Rita, La tierra de Venus, El cafetal y el batey, by the masters Ernesto Lecuona and Eliseo Grenet. With this he achieved a resounding triumph for the first time in Havana, and this earned him various contracts, such as the one at Teatro Payret.

In 1930, he performed and sang at the Teatro Martí, alongside the company of the Asturian Jesús Ordóñez, and premiered La parranda and La del soto del parral. The illness of the comic tenor allowed him to substitute for the lead role and achieved such success that he displaced the original performer, foreshadowing what would be his passage through the stages of Ibero-America.

In Mexico he witnessed the emergence of sound cinema—Santa (dir. Antonio Moreno, 1931)—and participated in the filming of other titles.

In that decade he debuted with La corte del faraón at the Principal theater of the Mexican capital and later toured various states performing in comedies and operettas. Also there, he created his own company to perform zarzuelas and served as artistic director of Ernesto Lecuona's company during its time in that country. He participated in the first Mexican sound feature film Santa, a prelude to his performance in other Aztec film productions.

Upon his return to Cuba, in the 1940s, he formed a theatrical group and mounted, each November, Zorrilla's Don Juan Tenorio. In 1942, he debuted on RHC Cadena Azul as a leading actor and artistic director of the Aventuras de Manuel García. A year later he simultaneously performed both roles in the space of La novela del aire which consolidated romantic-melodramatic-serialized radionovela in Cuba.

In 1945, together with his brother Luís Manuel, he became a precursor of sound effects and musical arrangements in radio from various stations in Havana.

In 1949 he introduces modern French vaudeville to Cuba with which he tours the island, in twelve annual seasons until 1960. However, he never completely abandoned his lyric performances and was the comic tenor in numerous companies of Augusto Ordóñez, Antonio Palacios or Miguel de Grandy.

He debuted on television with Rosa Fornés in Video Revista La corona, in the 1950s, and from then on he never left the Cuban screen, which he honored as an actor, singer, entertainer and artistic director in dramas and comedies.

In the 1950s, he founded a French Vaudeville theatrical company, a refined style of comedies in which María de los Ángeles Santana stood out as a vedette. After 1959, when the Revolution triumphed, despite the decision of some family members to emigrate, Mario and Luís Manuel decided to remain in Cuba and contribute with their versatile talent to the training of the new generation of Cuban artists.

In 1958 he joined with great success the zarzuela company of Aguilá-Martelo at the Teatro Martí, where he stood out for his excellent characterizations in roles as diverse as Casto José in La corte de Faraón or Goro in Molinos de Viento.

Together with Antonio Palacios and Armando Soler (Cholito), he was one of the promoters of the adaptation of zarzuelas, operas and operettas on screen from 1960. Despite his intense, fertile and exquisite contribution to the artistic development of Cuban radio and television, he never abandoned theater, which formed him, and especially, Lyric Theater.

He performed in the Provincial Culture Council season, interpreting the Niegus in La viuda alegre (1962). He worked in radio, television, film and nightclubs. He appeared in several Cuban films.

He was among the first artists who in 1968 received the decoration of the national union of the artistic sector with the National Order.

He was married to Mexican actress Isabel Mondragón (1919-1994). He died in Havana on June 10, 1986.