Biography
Juan José Gurrola was a Mexican actor, theatre and film director, architect, playwright and visual artist. Born in Mexico City in 1935, he studied architecture at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and later pursued further training in theatre design and direction in the United States and Germany.
He appeared as Maestro 2 in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo (1970). Other screen roles include Diego Rivera in Frida, naturaleza viva (1983) and appearances in Llámenme Mike (1979) and Senda de gloria (1987). Gurrola directed several short films and worked extensively in theatre, staging more than fifty productions.
In 2004 he received Mexico’s National Prize for Sciences and Arts in the field of Fine Arts. He died in Mexico City in 2007.
