Xavier López

Acting

Xavier López

Born 1935-02-17 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

Xavier López Rodríguez (17 February, 1935 - 25 March, 2023), better known as Chabelo, was a Mexican-American actor, comedian and television host. He hosted a children's program entitled En familia con Chabelo, which aired for forty-eight years. He studied medicine, which he practiced for four years in a private sanatorium where he was a partner. At the same time and while still studying, he missed classes in order to make frequent visits to the facilities of the building known as Televicentro, inaugurated in 1952, owned by the alliance of Mexican radio stations, Telesistema Mexicano, which would later become Televisa. There he met the producer, Luis de Llano Palmer, who offered him work as a production assistant, a job he accepted and opted to abandon his career in medicine. At the same place, he also worked as a cameraman and floor manager. This experience was what helped him make the decision to become an actor and later he began to study drama for four years. Later, he would begin to have brief appearances in television broadcasts called teleteatros (of which there is not much information), and in which he would participate as a substitute for actors who were late or absent. He got his nickname after telling a joke about a boy named Chabelo and would embody that boy as a character for most of his acting career. He participated in 10 television programs, 34 movies and 4 soap operas, in addition to recording several albums as his character "Chabelo". In 2003 he was awarded a Diosa de Plata for his artistic career. In 2005 he received the Legend Award from the MTV Movie Awards Mexico. In 2006 he received the Gaviota International Award for his artistic career. In June 2010, at the Lunas del Auditorio Awards, he received the special recognition Una Vida en el Escenario (A Life on Stage). During the last broadcast in 2012, he received a tribute for his two thousand three hundred programs of En familia con Chabelo. During that same broadcast, he was awarded two Guinness World Records: the first for the longest career as host of a children's program (forty-four years), and the second for the longest time representing a character, Chabelo (fifty-seven years), "the friend of all children". On March 25, 2023, Chabelo passed away in Mexico City at the age of 88, due to a septic shock caused by an acute abdominal condition. The following day, his body was cremated and his ashes were given to his family.

Acting credits

The Extra poster
6.9

Cantinflas is a man who hangs around the studios and helps anyone who needs his advice while at the same time envisioning his own versions of how certain scenes should be shot. Both angles provide ample opportunities for very witty, subtle barbs at the foibles of the industry.

The Extra

1962

No artwork available
6.3

Collection of comedy sketches and blackout gags edited into feature-length movie. Laugh-In style.

Vuelve Chistelandia

1958

Mision W2M poster
3.0

Famous internet celebrity Werevertumorro is called by a strange person to carry out an operation, if he doesn't do it the guy will threaten to kill his girlfriend. Werever will have to destroy a virus that kills humans with his friends, also involved.

Mision W2M

2013

Chabelo Y Pepito en La Lampara Maravillosa poster
5.4

Pepito The child misbehaves because his stepfather is scolding. Buy a sauceboat but when his cat rubs it a genie appears. The child understands that it is the magic lamp and asked all sorts of goodies and the solution of their tasks, but when he needs money stepfather tells of genius. The stepfather asked to topple his partner's plane. Pepito refuses and flees with the lamp and throws it into a river to avoid falling into its power. The stepfather drowns while trying to rescue him.

Chabelo Y Pepito en La Lampara Maravillosa

1972

The Crime of Cacaro Gumaro poster
4.4

After their fathers death, two brothers dispute the inheritance: the local movie theater known as Linterna Mújica. Their dispute may or not bring the town to its apocalypse, but it will for sure turn it upside-down.

The Crime of Cacaro Gumaro

2014

La Chilindrina en apuros poster
7.3

No synopsis available yet.

La Chilindrina en apuros

1994

Amar poster
3.8

Five stories blend with love, sex, the emptiness of being unloved, passion and desire: Carlos and Susana go to some uncle´s apartment to make love. Meanwhile, Benito, an 80-year-old, performs a serenade to his wife. His neighbor Adela is told that her mother has Alzheimer and that she will be relocated since the Buenos Aires building she lives in will be demolished. Amado catches his son Carlos stealing his money. Gabriel asks Martha´s parents for her hand in marriage but they condition them to get married at their favorite church. And Patricia, 40, a creative agent, sexually abuses Joel, who directs a beer commercial.

Amar

2009

Mi fantasma y yo poster
5.2

A family of three moves to a haunted house. The couple's 10-year-old son runs into the ghost of the house but isn't scared. He tells the ghost that since his father is a writer of horror novels he lost fear of horror stories. The ghost then confides in the boy that he is a lonely ghost on account of the modern world focused on so many material priorities. Child and ghost become best friends, playing together, telling stories and helping the ghost pay his rent by scaring people every month.

Mi fantasma y yo

1988

Nueva Chistelandia poster
5.8

Sketch comedy and blackout gags -- format like Laugh-In. Number two in a series.

Nueva Chistelandia

1958

Cartas a Elena poster
6.5

In the beautiful hills of the Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico, a young boy (Emilio) is adopted by the mailman (Teo). As part of their daily tasks, they not only deliver the mail but read letters to the villagers, as well as take dictation, since most are illiterate. Young Emilio quickly learns to read and write but feels saddened by the mostly difficult stories sent by relatives, that moved north to Denver, Colorado in pursuit of a better future. One day Teo becomes disabled and Emilio takes over the mail route and with great imagination, he changes the letters to happy and optimistic stories. Within days, the village is transformed. The elders, once hopeless, lonely and sad, are now happy and enthusiastic, enjoying the "supposed" success their loved ones write from the United States. But the enjoyment is short lived, as they realize that all the wonderful stories are the same...

Cartas a Elena

2012

No artwork available
6.0

Short-attention-span sketch comedy and black-out gags, assembled into a movie. Structured like TV show "Laugh-In". First of three in series.

Chistelandia

1958

El aviso inoportuno poster
7.9

The farce starring Polivoces , creative Mexican comedians duo formed by Enrique Cuenca and Eduardo Manzano, in the roles of characters and Gordolfo Naborita respectively. When the child Gordolfo question the identity of his father, devoted Naborita recounts the story of his family in five innings , located in the contexts of the Stone Age , the Roman Empire , incursions of English pirates in the Caribbean , West American and the space race of the years after World War II .

El aviso inoportuno

1969

Agente 0013 - Hermelinda Linda 2 poster
4.0

A sophisticated device falls into Hermelinda's hands and when the Soviets and Arabs try to retrieve it, an international witchcraft war breaks out.

Agente 0013 - Hermelinda Linda 2

1986

Chabelo Y Pepito Contra Los Monstruos poster
7.4

An ordinary day's hike gets rough when two youngsters escape from the main group into the woods and, after finding a grotto, discover that there is more to it than just darkness.

Chabelo Y Pepito Contra Los Monstruos

1973

La criada bien criada poster
6.1

Saucy-but-naive country girl moves to the big city to look for work.

La criada bien criada

1972

The Mongolian Conspiracy poster
6.4

1963, the Soviet Union intercepts a rumour that China pretends to assassinate the president of the US in his visit to Mexico. Filiberto Garcia, a local policeman, has 72 hours to investigate the Mongolian Conspiracy.

The Mongolian Conspiracy

2019

Autopsy of a Ghost poster
5.2

Satan offers a weary ghost a chance for redemption through true love.

Autopsy of a Ghost

1968

Chabelo y Pepito Detectives poster
7.8

A commanding friend Pepito and Chabelo ask them to help uncover a gang who kidnaps children. They accept and are out to steal to join the band. Whenthey find that the band mesmerizes children with toys and then the kids are controlled by young boys and they controlled in turn by strangers with long hair and blue eyes.

Chabelo y Pepito Detectives

1974

Los pepenadores de aca poster
5.6

Street-vendor believes he's wanted for a murder he didn't commit, so he hides among the "gleaners" at the city dump.

Los pepenadores de aca

1985

Trip to the Moon poster
6.0

In this movie a couple of comedians try to disappear for a while and end up in an asylum, where confused as the mad, and try to escape, but one of them falls in love and that complicates things.

Trip to the Moon

1958

The Two Rivals poster
7.0

Ranchera comedy -- the hero thinks his girlfriend has another suitor... but the suitor is really she herself in man-drag.

The Two Rivals

1966

La princesa hippie poster
6.8

Twins separated at birth; one grows up to inherit the crown of San Marciano, and the other works in a pawnshop in Mexico City.

La princesa hippie

1969

Flying low poster
5.3

Chuyín Venegas and Cornelio Barraza were the biggest stars of popular music and cinema of the 80's. "The Goldfinches of Rosarito" had no equal as musical superstars, but after ten years of success, they parted ways. Now held in a mansion in Paris, Chuyín is launching a new album and international tour. But the ghosts of the past and the loneliness will make him change his solo plans and return to the seaside village where he and Cornelius met as children, to live the last musical adventureof "The Goldfinches of Rosarito".

Flying low

2013

Macho Que Ladra No Muerde poster
6.4

An old man punishes his son for not having children, so he tells him his inheritance will go to someone else if he doesn't have a child in a year.

Macho Que Ladra No Muerde

1984