Francisco Rabal

Acting

Francisco Rabal

Born 1926-03-08 · Águilas, Murcia, Región de Murcia, Spain

Francisco Rabal Valera (8 March 1926 – 29 August 2001), popularly known as Paco Rabal, was a Spanish actor. His career spanned more than 200 film and television roles, between 1942 and 2001. He received numerous accolades both in Spain and abroad, including the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor Award and the Goya Award for Best Actor. Rabal was best known internationally for his collaborations with director Luis Buñuel, with Ronald Bergan writing "most of his other major roles he carried the heady, perverse whiff of the great surrealist director with him." He worked with many other notable directors, including Carlos Saura, Pedro Almodóvar, William Friedkin, Michelangelo Antonioni, Claude Chabrol, Luchino Visconti, and Gillo Pontecorvo. One of Spain's most-loved and acclaimed actors during his lifetime, he also was known for his commitment to human rights and other social causes. Description above from the Wikipedia article Francisco Rabal, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Sorcerer poster
7.5

Four men from different parts of the globe, all hiding from their pasts in the same remote South American town, agree to risk their lives transporting several cases of dynamite (which is so old that it is dripping unstable nitroglycerin) across dangerous jungle terrain.

Sorcerer

1977

Belle de Jour poster
7.3

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

Belle de Jour

1967

L'Eclisse poster
7.7

Vittoria is a beautiful literary translator living in Rome. After splitting from her writer boyfriend, Riccardo, Vittoria meets Piero, a lively stockbroker, on the hectic floor of the Roman stock exchange. Though Vittoria and Piero begin a relationship, it is not one without difficulties, and their commitment to one another is tested during an eclipse.

L'Eclisse

1962

Dagon poster
6.1

A boating accident off the coast of Spain sends Paul and his girlfriend Barbara to the decrepit fishing village of Imboca. As night falls, people start to disappear and things not quite human start to appear. Paul is pursued by the entire town. Running for his life, he uncovers Imboca's secret..they worship Dagon, a monstrous god of the sea...and Dagon's unholy offspring are on the loose...

Dagon

2001

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! poster
6.8

After being released from a mental hospital, a troubled young man tracks down an actress he once had sex with and forces her into captivity, determined to make her part of his life.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

1990

Little Miracles poster
5.5

Rosalía is a cashier at a supermarket. She lives alone, loves reading fairy tales and hides in a magic fantasy world in order to survive living in the real one. She thinks she is a fairy who came on a mission and got caught in this world. She travels by bus every day. At the bus-stop, there is a "web camera" which records images and puts them into the Internet. Santiago is a scientist who works in an international research project to detect signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. He is a lonely man who lives with his dog and his computer. Rosalía finds she has some extra-sensory powers and thinks three young women she knows are fairies. They will remarkably influence her life. She also feels the need to meet her father, whom she has not seen since she was 8.

Little Miracles

1997

María Rosa poster
7.9

In order to get María Rosa, the woman he is deeply in love with, Marsal murders a moneylender hated by all the people and casts suspicion on his friend Andrés, the husband of his beloved María Rosa. After being imprisoned Andrés, Marsal becomes the protector of María Rosa while waiting for the development of events.

María Rosa

1965

El buscón poster
6.3

XVII century Spain. Don Pablo tries to climb position and falls into the hands of students, rogues, whores, fake skilled, executioners, jailers and comedians. Based on "The Buscón called Pablos" Francisco de Quevedo.

El buscón

1979

Oedipus Mayor poster
5.4

Edipo, is appointed mayor of a town plunged in misery and violence. His first mission is to discover and punish the murderers of Layo, a well-known potentate of the region. His investigation is directed towards all the armed factions that exist in Colombia.

Oedipus Mayor

1996

It Can Be Done Amigo poster
5.8

An outspoken boy and a gunfighter-pimp save a drifter's life from hanging. The boy's uncle dies, leaving a house and some dry, useless land to the boy. The dying uncle has obtained the drifter's promise to help the boy get what is his. Meanwhile the gunfighter has decided that the drifter should marry his daughter after being with her previously. The two get into a series of brawls and shoot-outs until they arrive in the town and find the boy's inheritance -which turns out not to be as useless as it first appears.

It Can Be Done Amigo

1972

Stay as You Are poster
5.8

A married Roman landscape architect starts an affair with a young woman who might be a shadow from his past.

Stay as You Are

1978

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 Witches poster
6.0

Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.

The Witches

1967

Nightmare City poster
5.7

A reporter and his doctor wife try to escape from the hordes of bloodthirsty, undead people exposed to nuclear radioactivity as military leaders fight a losing war of attrition against the relentless attacks.

Nightmare City

1980

Camino del Rocío poster
5.8

Esperanza and Maria Jesús are two orphans because their father, Don Fernando, dies. He shared his buissines with Martina Echave, an old lover, who hated him because she has always wanted to marry him. Esperanza and Maria Jesús fall almost into ruin for Matinas' handling. They had to take refuge with their aunt. Esperanza is Martinas' soon's girlfriend against her will, and they have a stormy relationship because José Antonio is also in love with her.

Camino del Rocío

1966

La vieja música poster
6.0

The new coach of the basketball team of Lugo arrives from Uruguay. He really knows nothing about training a basketball team so he keeps the previous coach on and in the meantime tries to learn from videos and books, but his real reason for coming to Spain was to find out about an old lost love.

La vieja música

1985

Eagles Over London poster
6.3

The British High Command finds itself in the thick of a huge dilemma when it is realized that they have long been infiltrated by spies from a German intelligence group. This all happens during the preliminary stages of the Battle of Britain.

Eagles Over London

1969

Reborn poster
4.2

A man discovers that his girlfriend is a "stigmata" (someone whose hands and feet mysteriously bleed in the same places where Jesus Christ was crucified) and tries to keep her out of the hands of a greedy TV preacher who plans to exploit her to make money for himself.

Reborn

1981

Little Bird poster
6.2

Manu travels to Murcia to spend the summer with their grandparents because their parents are getting divorced. Surrounded by gardens, sea, nature, and lush, warm family, Manu find his first love and the first signs of adulthood.

Little Bird

1997

Trío de damas poster
5.4

No synopsis available yet.

Trío de damas

1960

Spain Again poster
6.5

David is a physician who returns to Spain 30 years after his involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Now a member of a medical convention, he looks up old friends and finds his former lover, now a married woman with a flamenco-dancing daughter. He and the daughter have an immediate and mutual attraction to each other. He considers running away with the exotic beauty before asking his wife to join him for an extended vacation after the convention .

Spain Again

1969

Epilogue poster
5.6

The film tells the story of two writers in love with the same woman. For years, they have worked together. One day they separate. Ten years later and Ditirambo meets up with Rocabruno, at the very least to tell him his latest story. An epilogue that closes what they together have opened.

Epilogue

1984

Path to the Kingdom poster
10.0

Soledad is a famous singer who, one fine day, decides to turn her life around and enter a convent to help others. The press and her family are baffled: now, the great figure of Spanish singing has become Sister María de la Asunción and works caring for the sick in a hospital that has serious financial problems. At first, everything is difficult, but the intrepid nun manages to get ahead through courage and generosity.

Path to the Kingdom

1952

One Hundred and One Nights poster
6.1

Monsieur Cinema, a hundred years old, lives alone in a large villa. His memories fade away, so he engages a young woman to tell him stories about all the movies ever made.

One Hundred and One Nights

1995