Manuel Salvador Ojeda Armenta (4 November 1940 – 11 August 2022 ) was a Mexican actor. Ojeda was one of the most active actors of television and cinema in Mexico. He played the villain, Zolo, in the Hollywood film Romancing the Stone.

Career

Manuel Salvador Ojeda Armenta was born in La Paz, Baja California Sur. He studied acting at the Instituto de Bellas Artes ("Institute of Fine Arts") and started his career in theatre. He obtained roles in his first film in his mid-thirties and later participated in the first of his dozens of telenovelas with Televisa two years later. In 1979, he appeared in his first English-language production, the 1979 Martin Sheen film Eagle's Wing. He also took the role of Jimmy in P.D. Tu gato ha muerto, the Spanish-language production of P.S. Your Cat Is Dead in 1983. The same year, Ojeda starred in Jaime Humberto Hermosillo's Las apariencias engañan as Sergio, a closeted gay man. Ojeda played the murderous secret police commander Zolo in the Hollywood film Romancing the Stone (1984). Co-star Kathleen Turner served as his interpreter during filming as director Robert Zemeckis spoke no Spanish. On television, Ojeda portrayed Emiliano Zapata in the telenovela Senda de gloria in 1987 and Porfirio Díaz in El vuelo del águila in 1994. In 1994, he began to focus on his television career, eventually appearing in over 45 television series. From 2005 to 2006, he was part of the cast of the telenovela Alborada.

Health issues and death

In the later years of his life, Ojeda reported that he suffered from depression when he was not working. While he was filming Corazón guerrero in 2022, he began to experience symptoms of liver disease, including anorexia. His health deteriorated quickly over the course of two months and he died on 11 August 2022.

Filmography

Films

Television

Awards and nominations

TVyNovelas Awards

Premios El Heraldo de México