Salvador Juan de la Cruz Wood Fonseca

Relevant Cuban actor in radio, film, theater and Cuban television. ACTUAR Prize for Lifetime Achievement, awarded by the Artistic Agency of Performing Arts ACTUAR, National Radio Prize and National Television Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

He began his artistic career at a very early age. His contact with radio dates back to his time as a student when he participated in a contest on the radio station CMKR in his hometown, where he started as a substitute operator.

In 1943, as a radio station enthusiast, he first appeared as a singer and later as an actor. In his first acting appearance on radio, he played one of eight medical students in a special program that aired on November 27 of that same year.

His theatrical debut, at age 17, took place with the Comedy and Dramatic Art Group of Santiago de Cuba. This group was directed by José María Béjar from Matanzas. On this occasion, with the work Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla, Béjar played the lead role and Salvador played his counterpart.

In search of new horizons and better development opportunities, Salvador traveled to Havana in 1946. After spending eight months in the capital, he returned to his hometown where he stayed for a year. There he married the also famous Cuban actress Yolanda Pujols.

Back in Havana, in 1948, he joined Unión Radio and finally, RHC Cadena Azul opened its doors to him and baptized him with the name Leonardo Robles. There he became a leading actor of Cadena Azul and, from 1952 onwards, of Radio Progreso. He also acted in the radio stations Radio García Serra and Radio Cadena Habana.

In 1952, he got his first role on television. He acted in a program by Paco Alfonso that was broadcast on Channel 2 and was directed by Jesús Cabrera. On this occasion he played a peasant character. Throughout his long artistic career, according to the actor's own testimony, he has played eighteen different peasants to date.

In this way, from 1952 until 1958, in addition to continuing his work in radio, he joined the newly created television channels and the shorts that Cine Revista produced on a weekly basis.

He has stated that he is an empirical professional, self-taught, who learned by observing and asking academic actors. Among his great teachers were the renowned director Juan Carlos Romero and Alejandro Lugo, among others. His self-taught education was enriched considerably after 1959, with the in-depth study of Stanislavski's techniques.

Like many young people in Cuban media, he joined the 26th of July Movement in 1955. After the strike on April 9, he was persecuted by the Batista government and was forced to go into exile. In Venezuela, Salvador joined the team of Indio Azul, a radio station founded by engineer Tamayo in an apartment he found in the neighborhood of La Castellana, also known as Las Mercedes. From Caracas, the aforementioned team transmitted support for the Rebel Army's struggle and provided coverage of news arriving from the Sierra Maestra. In Venezuela he also worked as a radio and television actor.

A few days after the revolutionary triumph, on January 8, 1959, he returned to Cuba. He was accompanied on the journey by his wife, Consuelito Vidal and Amaury Pérez.

Established in Havana again, he recovered his old name, ceased to be Leonardo Robles and became, forever, Salvador Wood.

His trajectory in cinema is very outstanding and prolific; without a doubt, he is an irreplaceable piece in the history of cinema on the island. He made his debut in 1960 in the documentary titled Chinchín, directed by Humberto Arenal, on which occasion he played another peasant character.

In his long list of films, classic titles of Cuban filmography stand out; for example The Twelve Chairs, filmed in 1962, or The Death of a Bureaucrat in 1966, both titles masterfully directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. He also worked with this director on The Death of a Bureaucrat (1966, filmed in black and white) and Cumbite.

Another important film for its historical and social value, starring Salvador Wood, is The Brigadista, produced in 1977. In this, directed by Octavio Cortázar, he shared the screen for the first time with his son, the also well-known actor Patricio Wood. The film references the Literacy Campaign that took place in Cuba in 1961. Salvador played the character of a peasant who resists being taught by a young brigadista.

Additionally, Wood acted in The Sea (1962, Fernando Villaverde); I Am Cuba (1962, USSR, produced by Mikhail Kalatozov); Papers Are Papers (1966, Fausto Canel); The Baptism (1967, Roberto Fandiño); You Have the Word (1973, Manuel Octavio Gómez); The First Delegate (1975, in collaboration with Santiago Álvarez); Slave Hunter (1976; Sergio Giral) and in that same year participated in Patty Candela, by Rogelio París.

In 1979 he filmed No Sunday Without Sun, by Manuel Herrera and That Long Night, by Enrique Pineda Barnet. In 1981 he acted in Red Dust, by Jesús Díaz and the following year filmed Glass Ceiling, by Sergio Giral. In 1984 he worked in Jíbaro under the direction of Daniel Díaz. In that same year he participated in the film by Manuel Pérez, The Second Hour of Esteban Zayas.

In 1990, in the film Caravan, which recreates the Cuban epic in Angola, he shared the screen again with his son Patricio Wood. That same year he acted in the Cuban-French film The Impure One, by Paul Bechialli.

His last appearance in cinema was in the film Three Times Two. This film, presented in 2004, tells three stories, each told and directed by a young Cuban director. Salvador participates in the second story "Lila" by director Lester Hamlet. Here he plays the adult version of young actor Caleb Casas and is accompanied in the cast by Marta del Río and Frank González.

Similarly, he has had the opportunity to play on the small screen, on various occasions, figures of Cuban culture. Two of these cases were the personalities of Carlos J. Finlay and José Martí.

The first was in 1968, in a special program directed by the former television heartthrob, Pedro Álvarez. Carmen Zayas Bazán, wife of Martí, was played, coincidentally, by Yolanda Pujols. The program dealt with the beginning of the Ten Years' War, on the centennial of that glorious date.

The second was in a television series that has been rebroadcast on several occasions. For the interpretation of the eminent Cuban scientist Finlay, Salvador Wood needed a long preparation process that lasted nearly two years. According to Salvador himself, he had to build a small laboratory in his home that would help him understand the scientific life and great discoveries of the Cuban researcher.

Other beloved characters, which attest to his presence on the small screen, are those of Tony Santiago and Carito. In the first case, he played a fighter from the Second Front who infiltrates the CIA in the early years of the Revolution and dies defending the Homeland. With Carito, he became an illiterate elderly man from the Zapata Swamp. The swamp dweller, a character of very low cultural level, but possessor of great popular wisdom, was one of the most popular characters in the well-known When Water Returns to the Land; one of the most important Cuban telenovelas.

His great merits as an artist are endorsed by the multiple awards that have been conferred upon him. Among them are the National Radio Prize for a lifetime of work, the Distinction for National Culture, the Microphone for the 70th Anniversary of Cuban Radio and the Alejo Carpentier Medal.

In addition, he was awarded the commemorative plaque El Cucalambé, granted by the province of Las Tunas and the commemorative plaque for the 40th anniversary of the Soviet Film Festival. He was also recognized as a National Hero of Labor and was awarded a replica of the machete of Generalísimo Máximo Gómez.