Eusebio Poncela

Eusebio Poncela Aprea was born in Madrid on 15 September 1945, and was raised in Vallecas.^[3][4][5] In his childhood, he was kicked out from eight schools.^[6] He trained at the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático.^[7] He graduated from the same class as Marisa Paredes and Juan Diego.^[8]

Poncela made his theatre debut in a play of Mariana Pineda in 1967.^[9][10] He earned clout on the Spanish stage scene, with ensuing roles in plays of Marat/Sade, Romeo and Juliet, and A Taste of Honey, after which he developed a screen career in film and television.^[11] The latter play premiered in March 1971 at the Teatro Infanta Beatriz, and, starring Poncela as a young gay man alongside Ana Belén and Laly Soldevila, obtained great success.^[12]

His film career took off in the 1970s. In the anthology horror film Pastel de sangre (1971), he played a part as the Monster in the segment directed by Jaime Chávarri dedicated to Victor Frankenstein.^[13][14] He also featured in Eloy de la Iglesia's The Cannibal Man (1972), portraying a homosexual character.^[7] The Spanish film cut was nonetheless mutilated by the Francoist censorship.^[15] He also appeared in Pedro Olea's A House Without Boundaries (1972),^[16] in Larga noche de julio (1974),^[17] in La muerte del escorpión (1976),^[18] and in In memoriam (1977), starring alongside Geraldine Chaplin and José Luis Gómez.^[19] In 1978, he appeared in the television series Curro Jiménez.^[20]

He starred as the lead of the cult film Rapture, directed by Iván Zulueta, a key instance of experimental film produced in Spain during the Transition.^[21] In the film, which was not successful upon its release,^[11] he portrayed a director of low-budget horror movies vampirised by the effect of addictions to cinema and heroin.^[22] In Guillo Pontecorvo's Ogro, he portrayed one of the ETA members who carried out the magnicide of Carrero Blanco.^[23] He attained mainstream recognition in 1982 with his work in the Televisión Española series Los gozos y las sombras.^[24] He starred as the lead, a police inspector, in the crime film El arreglo [ca] (1983), in what Diego Galán [es] described as an "honest, effective" performance despite the character's lack of nuance.^[25][22] He also continued his stage career, featuring in a play of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1984).^[26] He played a police inspector again in Pedro Almodóvar's Matador (1986).^[27] Also In 1986, he starred in Pilar Miró's Werther, a film adaptation of Goethe's novel selected for the 43rd Venice International Film Festival,^[28] and starred as detective Pepe Carvalho in the crime television series Las aventuras de Pepe Carvalho.^[20]

With Antonio Banderas, Poncela co-starred in Law of Desire (1987), playing a gay film and theatre director.^[29] His character in the film has been read as placed within the framework of an intertextual relation with prior roles played by Poncela in La muerte del escorpión and Rapture.^[30]

In the 1990s, he lived in Argentina, featuring in films such as A Shadow You Soon Will Be (1994),^[31] Martín (Hache) (1997),^[24] and La sonámbula [es].^[32] He also garnered notoriety in the country for his participation in the music video for Los Fabulosos Cadillacs's "Matador" and for collaborations with his close Argentine acquaintance Fito Páez (Balada de Donna Helena and "Sasha, Sisí y el círculo de baba").^[1] He portrayed the Devil in "Pacto", an Argentine television commercial for Renault Clio.^[33]

In the 2000s, Poncela returned to Spain.^[24] In the fantasy thriller Intact (2001), he played a man gifted with the ability to steal luck from others.^[34] His performance in the film earned him his only Goya Award nomination.^[35] He also appeared in Black Serenade (2001) and 800 Bullets (2002). At the 2004 Gijón International Film Festival, he received the Nacho Martínez Award.^[9]

With the turn of the century, as the pace of his work in film slowed down, the weight of his career in television series increased.^[35] He played the cardinal Casimiro Morcillo, president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, in the TVE miniseries Tarancón, el quinto mandamiento about the life of Cardinal Tarancón.^[36][37] He portrayed another cleric, Cardinal Cisneros, in the third season of the historical series Isabel, reprising the role in the sequel series Carlos, Rey Emperador, in a crossover episode of El ministerio del tiempo, and in the feature film The Broken Crown.^[20][38] His television work also included villain roles in Red Eagle and El accidente.^[20] In advance of the 2017 Sant Jordi Awards ceremony, Poncela was announced as the recipient of the Sant Jordi Special Award for Lifetime Achievements.^[9] Late television roles include his appearance in the season 2 of Merlí: Sapere Aude (2021) playing a mentor to the protagonist and his portrayal of a psychiatrist in the psychological thriller series Matices [es] (2025).^[39][40]

In 2022, Poncela starred in a play of Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman directed by Carlota Ferrer.^[41] He also received the LesGaiCineMad festival's honorary award at Cine Doré.^[42]

The Last Rapture, a documentary film about Rapture featuring Poncela, is set to be released in September 2025 at the 73rd San Sebastián International Film Festival.^[43]

Poncela was a recovering heroin addict.^[44] In a 2022 interview to Vanity Fair, he described himself as "quite solitary and misanthropic".^[45][11] He stated that he managed to kick his heroin habit after moving to Argentina.^[45] Likewise, seeking to set a distance from his addictions, Poncela left the centre of Madrid for El Escorial.^{[46][n. 1]} He self-defined as "trisexual" and gay.^[47]

Poncela died at his residence in El Escorial, on 27 August 2025, at the age of 79.^[46][48] The cause of his death was cancer, which he had been suffering from for over a year.^[46] His wake was held at the funeral home of San Isidro in Madrid and was attended by colleagues such as Luis Tosar and Luisa Mayol.^[49]