Fernando Rey

Acting

Fernando Rey

Born 1917-09-20 · A Coruña, Galicia, Spain

Fernando Rey  (September 20, 1917 – March 9, 1994) — best known as Fernando Rey — was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States. A suave, international actor best known for his roles in the films of surrealist director Luis Buñuel (Tristana, 1970; Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, 1972; That Obscure Object of Desire, 1977) and as a drug lord in The French Connection (1971), he appeared in more than 150 films over half a century. The debonair Rey was described by French Connection producer Philip D'Antoni as "the last of the Continental guys". He achieved his greatest notoriety after he turned 50: "Perhaps it is a pity that my success came so late in life", he told The Times of Madrid in 1973. "It might have been better to have been successful while young, like El Cordobes in the bullring. Then your life is all before you to enjoy it."

Acting credits

The Rash One poster
6.0

Paco is the boy buttons a luxury hotel. Usually do small businesses with the resale of tickets to bullfights tourists. By a misunderstanding is fired from his job. There is no use of his taste and wanders the Victoria Street taverns. Finally discovers his only chance in bulls, easy craft that believes and loves. The reality is very different and has to accept the truth which manifests itself in a very dramatic.

The Rash One

1964

The French Connection poster
7.5

Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.

The French Connection

1971

1492: Conquest of Paradise poster
6.3

1492: Conquest of Paradise depicts Christopher Columbus’ discovery of The New World and his effect on the indigenous people.

1492: Conquest of Paradise

1992

Voyage of the Damned poster
6.0

A luxury liner carries Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany in a desperate fight for survival.

Voyage of the Damned

1976

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie poster
7.5

In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

1972

Aoom poster
5.9

The story concerns an actor who is unhappy with life and decides to separate from his body and integrate his mind into a doll. When his body dies, a group of characters search the countryside to find the doll.

Aoom

1970

That Obscure Object of Desire poster
7.5

After dumping a bucket of water on a beautiful young woman from the window of a train car, wealthy Frenchman Mathieu, regales his fellow passengers with the story of the dysfunctional relationship between himself and the young woman in question, a fiery 19-year-old flamenco dancer named Conchita. What follows is a tale of cruelty, depravity and lies -- the very building blocks of love.

That Obscure Object of Desire

1977

French Connection II poster
6.8

"Popeye" Doyle travels to Marseilles to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler that eluded him in New York.

French Connection II

1975

The Last Days of Pompeii poster
6.3

Glaucus, a demobilized centurion returns home to Pompeii to find his father murdered by a gang of black-hooded Christian robbers that terrorizes the city and he decides to investigate the matter while the nearby volcano threatens to erupt.

The Last Days of Pompeii

1959

The Hit poster
6.5

Ten years after ratting on his old mobster friends in exchange for personal immunity, two hit men drive a hardened criminal to Paris for his execution. However, while on the way, whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.

The Hit

1984

Honey poster
4.8

A surreal erotic fantasy about a young woman who checks into a bizarre, labyrinthine hotel.

Honey

1981

La pródiga poster
7.0

Spain, 1850. In the midst of the electoral campaign, three young men use all their strategies to place themselves in Madrid as members of the national congress.

La pródiga

1946

The Savage Guns poster
5.0

This Western is set in the Mexican valley of Sonora not that far south of the state of Arizona. It's just after the American Civil War, and a former Confederate officer, Mike Summers has taken refuge in a small town in the valley. He has married and is hoping to live in peace the rest of his life. Instead, he and his wife and the rest of the town are suffering the depredations of a brutal gunman, Danny Pose, and his gang of outlaws. Summers holds off picking up a gun because of his personal vow of non-violence. But the situation deteriorates and a new ally comes into the picture, Steve Fallon, a wandering gunslinger who may not be able to handle the bad guys alone.

The Savage Guns

1961

Return of the Seven poster
6.1

Chico, one of the remaining members of The Magnificent Seven, now lives in the town that they (The Seven) helped. One day someone comes and takes most of the men prisoner. His wife seeks out Chris, the leader of The Seven for help. Chris also meets Vin another member of The Seven. They find four other men and they go to help Chico.

Return of the Seven

1966

Villa Rides poster
6.2

Pulled into the Mexican Revolution by his own greed, Texas gunrunner and pilot Lee Arnold joins bandit-turned-patriot Pancho Villa and his band of dedicated men in a march across Mexico battling the Colorados and stealing women's hearts as they go. But each has a nemesis among his friends: Arnold is tormented by Fierro, Villa's right-hand-man; and Villa must face possible betrayal by his own president's naiveté

Villa Rides

1968

Run Like a Thief poster
7.0

The theft of a fortune in diamonds and the attempt by soldier of fortune Johnny Dent to outwit his pursuers who would stop at nothing to get their hands on the treasure forms the story-line. The chase reaches across the continent as Dent eludes the diamond syndicate police, a ruthless gangster, and a scheming girl in his attempt to escape.

Run Like a Thief

1967

Guns of the Magnificent Seven poster
5.4

When Mexican revolutionary leader Quintero is left to rot in jail by the forces of President Diaz, it's up to his subordinate, Max, to bust him out. With $600 in hand, he crosses the border into America and hires Chris Adams, a mercenary of considerable skill, who uses the rest of the cash on more hired guns. After the team is rounded out by experts on close-combat fighting, explosives, and knife-throwing, they set off to free Quintero.

Guns of the Magnificent Seven

1969

Chimes at Midnight poster
7.2

Henry IV usurps the English throne, sets in motion the factious War of the Roses and now faces a rebellion led by Northumberland scion Hotspur. Henry's heir, Prince Hal, is a ne'er-do-well carouser who drinks and causes mischief with his low-class friends, especially his rotund father figure, John Falstaff. To redeem his title, Hal may have to choose between allegiance to his real father and loyalty to his friend.

Chimes at Midnight

1965

Viridiana poster
7.7

Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Viridiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.

Viridiana

1962

The Castilian poster
10.0

Also released as Valley of the Swords, this lugubrious US/Spanish co-production features the usual mid-1960s "tax shelter" international cast. Broderick Crawford plays a despotic 10th century Spanish king who, in cahoots with the invading Moors, has banished handsome Castilian nobleman Spartaco Santoni. With the surreptitious aid of Crawford's daughter Teresa Velasquez, Santoni assembles an army to march against the Moors. In keeping with the 13th century epic poem from which this film was derived ("El Poema de Fernan Gonzales") Santoni's path is smoothed by the celestial intervention of patron saints Milan and Santiago. Among the big names picking up a few tax-free dollars in The Castilian are Cesar Romero, Linda Darnell, Alida Valli and Fernando Rey.

The Castilian

1963

Son of a Gunfighter poster
4.7

A young man stalks his mother's killers.

Son of a Gunfighter

1965

Tristana poster
7.2

As a young woman, Tristana is orphaned and taken under the guardianship of Don Lope, a respected member of the community, who takes advantage of his innocent charge. When Tristana falls in love with artist Horacio, she must learn to be more assertive in order to achieve independence from her nefarious guardian, or her blossoming relationship with Horacio is doomed.

Tristana

1970

Scheherazade poster
7.4

Sheherazade is promised to a powerful Sultan as a gift in exchange for free passage to the Holy Land. When the Sultan's underling saves her from certain death, she falls madly in love with her hero.

Scheherazade

1963

Compañeros poster
6.5

Arms dealer Yolaf Peterson aims to make a sale to guerilla Mongo, but the money is locked in a bank safe, the combination known only to Professor Xantos, a prisoner of the Americans. Yolaf agrees to free Xantos, accompanied by reluctant guerilla Basco, but a former business partner of Yolaf's- John 'The Wooden Hand', has other ideas.

Compañeros

1970