Cuban actor Evelio Taillacq dies

September 8, 2019

Cuban actor and host Evelio Taillacq passed away on Wednesday in Miami from pancreatic cancer. He was 67 years old.

Taillacq is considered an actor of the old guard of Cuban cinema, although he entered the arts as a young leading man on Cuban television after studying at the emerging art schools in the 1960s. He distinguished himself in the 1970s for his participation in the popular Adventures program on Cuban television, where he played all types of roles, almost always leading roles.

In the mid-1980s he came to the United States through the Mariel boatlift and had the opportunity to develop a series of activities outside the artistic field.

He was a journalist, wrote two books – Endiablado Deseo and La Habana de los mil demonios – ventured into television hosting on the Telemundo network with 'El Show de Evelio Taillacq' and developed much of his career in Puerto Rico, which he considered his second homeland.

He became a correspondent in Spain for the Univisión program, Gran Impacto. "Puerto Rico is in mourning today. He lived there for many years and they loved him very much. He was extremely good as a host because he was very intelligent, connected very well with his interviewees, and conducted excellent interviews," said Mabell Dieppa, current entertainment producer for the program.

For those of us who knew him, Evelio was always a friend, and those who worked with him at the Nuevo Herald gave him the affectionate nickname of coffee editor because whenever he showed up in the newsroom, he would brew spectacular coffee. He was, above all, a lover of life and a benefactor to his friends.

"Evelio was quite a gentleman. Cultured, educated, talented, sensitive, and above all warm and kind. He lived with intensity and fully. Conversing with him was a pleasure. His anecdotes about people, places and experiences enchanted me," Puerto Rican journalist Jeannette Rivera-Lyles, who spent many hours working with Taillacq, told OnCuba.

Moreover, she recalls, "he loved Puerto Rico almost as much as Cuba. He worked on the island on several occasions throughout his life, in novels, theater and hosting variety programs. He told me that one of his favorite Sunday activities was driving without hurrying and without a map through the mountainous towns in the center of the island. If he got lost, he would knock on a random door, and almost always someone who recognized him would open it and invite him for a coffee, which he always accepted. That's how he collected dozens of stories and experiences from the island and its people."

Taillacq was also an avid conversationalist on Facebook where he maintained entertaining and enriching conversations with his friends that remain recorded for future memory. And he gave life lessons. Less than a month before he passed away, he wrote: "In affectionate exchanges there are two types of people, those who fill up your gas tank and those who empty it, those who give you energy, knowledge, joy, hope and those who flatten you, drain you, dry you out and diminish you. You are the one, in any case, who chooses what type of exchange you prefer in your life. I have it clear and choosing well helps me a lot to be happy. It's not that I'm being given anything, just that they stimulate me to achieve it myself with my effort. That alone is enough and wonderful. And long live LIFE!"