Enrique Rocha: fate took him from architecture to stage

Enrique Rocha, a veteran Mexican soap opera actor who died Sunday, never imagined that his destiny was in acting. Without putting much effort in the studies and yes in "Live the life", one day he found by mistake an opportunity that would change his life and for which he would go from architecture to stage.

A regular at parties and billiards, one day, invited by a friend, Enrique Rocha came to the rehearsal of "Spring awakening", a play that was being directed by Juan José Gurrola.

As the actor Juan Ibáñez (director of "Los Caifanes" 1967), Gurrola invited Rocha to go on stage to say the part of the absent.

When his participation ended, the director became interested in his particular voice and appearance and invited him to be part of the play, that was when his prolific acting career began, mainly in theater.

Invited by the Spanish director Alvaro Custodio and at only 21 years old, one of the most important works he carried out was "Hamlet".

After that the doors of television were opened to him and together with Julissa and Fanny Cano he was one of the most important characters in the telenovela "The lie" (1965), after the producer Fernando Alonso contacted him to be part of the cast.

Then came the proposal from the director and producer Julio Bracho, who wanted him to play Jesus Cristo in the film. "The process of Christ" (1966).

His career was on an undeniable ascent, after his work in experimental theater and at such a young age having had the opportunity to play characters as in demand as Hamlet and Christ, so the opportunities, instead of stopping, continued.

Rocha remembered his prolific beginnings when Juan Ibáñez himself considered him to do "The well loved" (1965) in New York or his work with director Arturo Ripstein on "Time to Die" (1966), a screenplay by Gabriel García Marquez.

A VILLAIN LIFE

His trajectory as a villain was mostly limited to soap operas, as he himself assured on some occasions, he never had antagonistic roles in the theater.

However, he is for many one of the most iconic villains that Mexican television has, among his most remembered characters are Lucio, an agent of the devil in the children’s soap opera "Seraph" (1999), Eladio Gómez Luna in "Passion and power" (1988), or like Nicolás Obregón in "The privilege of loving" (1998).

His career is framed by more than 80 titles of audiovisual productions, and one of his most recent works was in the animated version of Disney "The jungle book" (2016) where he lent his unmistakable voice to the Panther Bagheera or the soap opera "Silvia in front of you" (2019) based on the life of actress Silvia Pinal.

The actor was also known for the many romances he had. He married very young, at 21 years of age, with Marlene Serrallés, but their marriage did not last long. From his second marriage, with Patricia Campos, his only son was born, although this relationship did not last either.

OF THEIR LIFE

Mexican actor Enrique Rocha, who died this Sunday at the age of 81, forged a broad career as an actor in soap operas and it was his thick and dark voice, as well as his mysterious personality, that made him the villain over and over again. remembered and loved from television.

Enrique Miguel Rocha Ruiz, whose cause of death is unknown so far, was born in the central state of Guanajuato on January 5, 1940.

At a very young age, he arrived in Mexico City, where he studied from elementary school to a degree in Architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

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