Cuban actress and TV presenter Mayra Gómez Kemp dies in Madrid

October 14, 2024

Actress, singer, and TV presenter Mayra Gómez Kemp passed away in Madrid this Sunday at the age of 76, according to family sources who informed EFE.

Gómez Kemp, born in Havana on February 14, 1948, became famous in Spain during the 1970s when she hosted the popular RTVE game show "Un, dos, tres. Responda otra vez".

A few days ago, Mayra Gómez Kemp suffered a household accident at her home in Mijas (Málaga, south) for which she had to be admitted to the hospital. She herself confirmed it was a "big scare" since she spent more than 18 hours on the floor unable to get up until she received help. She was discharged and was recovering at home.

The iconic presenter of the game show 'Un, dos tres…' (TVE) created by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador, which captivated several generations of Spanish viewers, a program by which she was always remembered, withdrew from the media after being diagnosed in 2009 with tongue cancer and later throat and neck cancer.

But she faced the illness and relearned how to speak.

She was born in Havana (Cuba), on February 14, 1948. Daughter of Ramiro Gómez Kemp and Velia Martínez Febles, two Cuban musicians of Spanish origin who left Cuba after the triumph of the Revolution. A country to which she never returned.

After a long period living in different Latin American countries and in the United States, she arrived in Spain in 1970 and after a brief stay in Barcelona, she moved to Madrid, where she did voice-over work at Radio Madrid (Cadena Ser).

With extensive culture, Gómez Kemp studied Philosophy and Letters at the University of Tampa and Journalism at the University of Miami, a degree she completed in 1969.

She had some minor roles as an actress, but what few know about is her music career. She formed the musical trio Acuario with two flight attendants from Un, Dos, Tres.. (María Durán and Beatriz Escudero), with hits such as "Rema, rema, marinero". In 1977 she embarked on a solo career and released the LP Una dama (1978), produced by Ramón Arcusa (Dúo Dinámico).

Argentine actor Alberto Berco, twenty years her senior, was the great love of her life and her husband until his death in 2021. They married in 1974 by proxy in Bolivia and later civilly in Madrid, in 1987.