Gilberto Gazcón

Gilberto Gazcón de Anda May 19 1929 May 11 2013 was a Mexican film director screenwriter and producer He wrote more than fifty screenplays directed more than thirty films won numerous awards and was a promoter of Mexican cinema He is best known in Englishspeaking countries for the neo noir thriller film Rage 1966 starring Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens Gilberto Gazcón was born in Mexico City on 19 May 1929 He was the son of film producer and screenwriter Valentín Gazcón and the nephew of Raúl de Anda pioneers of Mexican sound cinema His brother Edgardo Gazcón also became a filmmaker He showed an aptitude for art from an early age and was drawn to cinema where he began as a child actor and later worked as an assistant set designer He began writing his own screenplays and decided to abandon his medical career and enrolled in film adaptation courses and studied acting at the Cinematographic Academy directed by Celestino Gorostiza The first film to be released with a plot written by him was Fierecilla 1950 directed by Fernando Méndez es which received favorable reviews for its plot and the psychology of its characters In 1958 he directed his first film The Boxer In 1966 he directed a MexicanAmerican coproduction Rage El mal starring Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens In 1960 he directed Lacarcel de Cananea which was shown at the San Sebastián International Film Festival He directed more than 30 films including The Uprooted 1959 The Laughter of the City 1962 Stray Dog 1980 and Stray Dog II 1981 He was a founding member in 1963 of the Mexican Society of Film Radio and Television Directors and Producers Sociedad Mexicana de Directores y Realizadores de Cine Radio y Televisión and honorary president since 1982 He died on May 11 2013 at the age of 83 due to pulmonary complications caused by an embolism Film director Juan Antonio de la Riva head of the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences described him as a great man who in his career as a writer and director always strove to be ambitious always pursued quality cinema which was demonstrated in most of his films