Juan de Garchitorena de Carvajal, also known as Juan Torena (24 March 1898 – 27 June 1983) was a Filipino footballer and an American Hollywood actor.
Juan Torena | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 24 March 1898 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 27 June 1983 (aged 85) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Footballer and actor | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1929-1953 (film) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Torena was born in Manila, Philippines in 1898 to a Filipino family of Spanish origin. After his mother had passed away, his father took his children along with him and moved to Argentina and then to Spain. In Spain, the teenage Torena became a professional footballer, and he eventually played for the Spanish club FC Barcelona as a forward, winning 2 Catalan Spanish league titles.
After retiring from football in 1920 after he was banned by the Spanish league for falsely declaring Argentinian citizenship,[1]Torena and his older brother, Angel Garchitorena, returned back to the Philippines in 1921 to resettle back to their homeland. There he looked after the family business. In 1928, he went to Los Angeles in the United States and auditioned to become a film actor. Between the 1930s and the 1950s Torena acted in numerous Hollywood films, appearing in both English and Spanish-language versions. His notable films included "There Were Thirteen" (1931), "Nothing More Than a Woman", "Storm Over the Andes" (1935), "Captain Calamity" (1936) and "American Guerrilla in the Philippines" (1950).
Torena held historical citizenships from the Philippines, Spain and United States. In 1954, he became a U.S. citizen for the second time, after his first U.S. Philippine citizenship was found invalid.
Torena died on 27 June, 1983 at the age of 85 in California and is buried in the United States.[2]
Personal life
editTorena was married to the American Hollywood actress Natalie Moorhead.[3]
Honours
editFC Barcelona
- Spanish League Catalan football championship: (2) 1916, 1919
Filmography
edit- Shadows of Glory (1930)
- Road of Hell (1931)
- There Were Thirteen (1931)
- Nothing More Than a Woman (1934)
- La cruz y la espada (1934)
- Storm Over the Andes (1935)
- The Devil on Horseback (1936)
- Captain Calamity (1936)
- Espionage (1937)
- Mis dos amores (1938)
- American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)
References
edit- ^ "Who was...Juan Torena:the former barcelona player who ended up as a Hollywood heartthrob". 20minutos. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- ^ "From Manila Party Boy to Hispanic-Hollywood Heartthrob". Positively Filipino. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
- ^ "El delantero que brilló en Hollywood". Panenka. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
Bibliography
edit- Jarvinen, Lisa. The Rise of Spanish-language Filmmaking: Out from Hollywood's Shadow, 1929-1939. Rutger's University Press, 2012.